More from the Moseley house

Being a second grader in the 60’s left quite an impression on me.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Winters were cold back then. We wore coats with fur-trimmed hoods and by the end of the season the fur would be matted and dirty. Yet the coat was passed on to a younger sibling.  Some years the coat had come secondhand in a big box from our cousins.

• My parents would close off certain rooms in the house to keep from having to heat them. Heat came from propane heaters, usually a big Dearborn in the living room. There’s nothing quite like backing up to a heater like that after coming in from the cold.

• My first grade teacher came to the house and sold us a set of World Book Encyclopedias which my parents still have. The collection of yearbooks grew bigger than the original set. My parents didn’t have much money but they made sure we had the tools for a good educational foundation. The set of Childcraft books that came with the encyclopedias provided hours and hours of reading for me and my siblings. I still have the set. The “Make and Do” volume was my favorite.  I thought it so strange that my teacher would come to my house, but I’m glad she did!

• I also saw the TV animated special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” for the first time in that house.  I was captivated by it. For us kids, those animated figures were the height of modern technology, a marvel.  We didn’t have animated shows available to us everyday like kids do today.