"There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be." - Willy Wonka, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"
As the Fall set into our life in our new Echo Hill home, Mom and Dad kept me pretty busy with gatherings, events, and short trips for us to partake in as the weather turned crisper and cooler. There was always plenty to do in the pre-cable, pre-video game, pre-VCR/DVD days, and we still seemed to be happy. Read the rest of this entry »
Mom didn’t make many notes in my Sweet Baby Days memory book about my second birthday – on Monday, October 2, 1973. Only that “Brad’s second birthday was spent at our new house at 3574 Echo Hill Lane.” Clearly the new house that we had just acquired less than two months prior was still garnering all the attention. However, my birthday celebration was the first event since our Cumberland trip that Summer to capture Dad’s attention enough to dictate that he pull out the Super 8 movie camera. Read the rest of this entry »
By the Summer of 1973, my parents had decided that although our house on John Glenn, which we had been renting from my Grandma Range, had served our little family well, it was time to move on to the next chapter in our lives. They didn’t care all that much for the area where the John Glenn house was located and wanted a bit more room both inside and outside. They had seen a listing for a nice little white house built in 1953, located in the Country Acres sub-division in the up-and-coming suburb of Beavercreek, Ohio. It had a spacious yard perfect for tending a nice, garden – and sending their kid out to play. It even had room to add on an additional garage where Mom and Dad could store their growing number of cars. In short, the house (seen above with our green ’65 Volkswagon Squareback and Oscar’s Buick in the driveway) was the perfect place to start. Read the rest of this entry »
I have no real memory of my family’s trip to the Cumberland region of Kentucky – but if I did, this is what I would remember: throwing rocks into the water (as seen at right). Because that’s basically all anyone else seems to remember about this trip! My Dad had just started at Miami Litho at the time, so he had amassed absolutely no vacation…so therefore this trip was merely a long weekender sometime in July of 1973. It’s kind of funny how I think of such a minscule trip as legendary, having for years seen photos and home movies taken during our ‘Cumberland trip’ – but really having no memory of it. Read the rest of this entry »
During the early 70’s we took several camping trips with Bill and Dottie, often during the early parts of the Summer before it became too unbearably hot. On a few occasions, our trips were over Memorial Day Weekend. In 1973, we spent Memorial Day weekend in Virginia and Washington D.C. (although I was not taken into D.C. – sore spot). So our first camping excursion was in the early Summer. We stayed in a nice private cove area near a lake. Unfortunately, no one can seem to recall where this campsite actually was located. Previously we had stayed at Woodland Altars and Imes Park, but the photos do not seem to indicate that this was at either place.