The Old Homestead

There were very few homes on Holcomb St when Frank and Margaret purchased theirs.  Holcomb is divided into two sections by Ocean Avenue. The Anderson home was on the side away from the beach - but it was only a short walk of perhaps 100 yards to the sea wall. The end of Holcomb away from the beach, at that time, was a small airport - much like Tweed New Haven is today. Shortly after the end of World War II, the airport was decommissioned and sold to a developer to build lower-priced homes that were primarily for sale to returning GI's. Among the streets in this new development were Fair Sailing Road, Contact Drive, Skyline Drive and Compass Lane - all very navigation-oriented whether by sea (which was quite close) or by air. 
The home in which the Anderson family lived was quite unique. From the outside, it looked like a very small Cape Cod surrounded by three quarters of an acre of land. The detached double garage and a single garage which doubled as a 'shed' or storage for outdoor tools were added by Frank and Margaret. These two outbuildings were separated by a small grove of beach and oak trees. The driveway was very narrow at the street end, opening up to a large Y-shape to access the outbuildings. The trolley ran on tracks on what was referred to as "the Grove" side. Eventually, the trolley too went the way of the dinosaur and the tracks were covered over by crushed gravel. Near the tracks, there was an outdoor fireplace. This could be used to burn leaves in the fall and roast hot dogs in the summer.  The previously mentioned airport was just beyond the trolley tracks. 
When Frank and Margaret's house was originally built, its purpose was to serve as a nursing home. To this end, it had three bedrooms upstairs and 2 more downstairs and a large porch where residents could sit out and enjoy the cool sea breezes on a hot summer night. The back door opened into an eat-in kitchen and a pantry. 
From the kitchen, one could walk thru an archway into the formal dining room. Another larger archway led to the formal living room. This living room held a lovely fireplace which was adorned with a mantle built into the wall above it and a small window on each side.  The front door was placed in between two more windows with a side door leading to the porch. 
From the pantry, one looked at the door to the basement. This door was kept closed and locked always - with the key in it. To the left, the next door was a bedroom with two windows which looked out on the back yard and drive respectively. In the far right corner of the room, a small door. As a child, this door often spooked me - it was too small for people - well, adult people anyway. It was, however,  the right size for, say, gnomes or trolls.... EEK! Its true purpose was accessibility to the plumbing as the bathroom was on the other side of the wall the door was on. The bathroom was standard for its period. Done in gold, black and lavender, the tub was under a window, toilet and radiator opposite each other,  a pedestal sink stood nearest the door. Slightly further down the hall on the right was another bedroom, and on the left - a staircase leading to 3 more bedrooms upstairs.
 This was perfect for Frank, Margaret and their three girls. Frank and Margaret had their bedroom on the first floor. The bathroom was on one side of their room, the kitchen on the other. They turned the second first-floor bedroom into a 'den'. This was the room that the family retired to each night after work, chores and school to share quiet family time with before-bed activities such as reading, sewing, knitting, crocheting. The living room, with its fireplace and built-in mantle, and dining room were kept for formal occasions only. Large, metal Venetian Blinds were drawn all day in order to keep the carpeting and furniture colors from fading in the sunlight.
Each girl had their own bedroom upstairs. The largest of the bedrooms belonged to the oldest girl - Edna. The middle bedroom, containing two closets and overlooking the driveway and trolley was Eileen's. One of the closet's in Eileen's room contained a small dormer window in the shape of a semi-circle. The second closet had a panel which could be removed, allowing one to crawl into the rafters. Just outside her window, there was a large oak tree that shed copious acorns in the fall. Edna's and Eileen's rooms both had double windows and closets.  The smallest, overlooking the back yard, was Dorothy's. This room contained no closet - however, it DID have THREE windows! The girls shared a "Water Closet" - a small room with only a toilet.  
To assist the sea breeze with cooling the house in the summer, Margaret had a large industrial fan installed on the second floor. On very hot, muggy nights, they would turn on this fan. Vents would appear from an opening in the ceiling of the second floor hallway and the powerful fan would rumble to life - almost immediately the breeze could be felt throughout the house!



Frank had a very green thumb. The yard was coaxed to yield all kinds of vegetables and fruit. Apple trees grew next to peach trees. Wax beans, green beans, tomato's, lettuce, eggplant, and squash were all loving tended by Frank and artfully prepared for the family dinner by Margaret. 
Frank loved to tend his gardens - often, during his later years, he would spend all day caring for his plants, tree's and shrubbery. He had a bevy of beautiful roses and mums. One red rose bush - he coaxed to grow on a trellis placed against the chimney - this remained for many years a glorious tribute to his abilities. Every spring, Frank would obtain a few yards of loom. This was dumped in an area between the double garage and the fireplace. Frank had an old wooden screen door which he used to strain rocks and other particles out of his loom as well as breaking it down to a fine dirt. This kept his soil loose and well aerated. Tomato's, though, THOSE were Frank's passion. He grew some of the best, roundest, reddest, juciest, tomatos around!

Margaret  kept a spectacularly clean house, starting her day at 5AM by cooking a solid breakfast of eggs, toast and bacon for the family. Everyone was required to have a 4 oz glass of their choice of juice as well, tomato and orange were the usual offerings - occasionally, there was the prune juice for its effects on the bowels. Coffee for the adults and milk for the girls. Butter was scarce during the war years - most of the time, one had a block of lard which came with a packet of yellow stuff that you mixed to give it color. Margaret rarely used this in her cooking, preferring, instead, to use the grease left over from the bacon she cooked. This made for the very tastiest of fried foods! We know today that this was not a particularly healthy method of cooking - but at this time, even smoking cigarettes was considered a normal part of daily life - nothing was known of the horrible side-effect of shortening ones life! 
Milk was delivered to the home early in the morning. There was an insulated metal box with a lid folks kept on their porches. They put their empty and washed glass milk bottles in the box at night. In the morning, the milkman would replace these with full bottles for the day's use. 

Being near the West Haven beach - less than 100 yards - the house never really got too hot in the summer. In fact, the small grove of Beach trees growing in between the big and little garages shaded the majority of the back yard and the house. The cool sea breeze ensured that only the muggiest of summer days would be uncomfortable. In winter, the Gulf Stream ensured that those living on the coast would not be burdened by the same volume of snow or cold that the inlanders would have to deal with. 

Margaret was a fortunate woman - she had what few did in those days - a REAL automatic washing machine! No scrubbing dirty clothes by hand for her! Well... except for unmentionables.... and diapers.  Automatic drying machines were TRUE luxuries then - Margaret always hung her clothes out on the clothes line. This line was strung between the back door and the side of what the family referred to as 'The Little Garage". Being fairly low to the ground, Margaret also had a 'clothes pole'. This was a fairly long (perhaps 7 feet) wood stick with a notch at the top. One would hook the clothes line into the notch of the clothes pole and then straighten it out - which brought the distance between the clothes line and the ground to 7 feet - allowing long items such as sheets to dry without touching the ground. 
The clothes line had more than one use! It was also, on occasion, a guide line. If you recall - Margaret had little tolerance for folks imbibing in alcohol, having spent her growing years with her over-indulging father. Frank, like most men, loved the baseball games. It happened that Quiqley Stadium was in West Haven - and Frank would occasionally spend an evening at the baseball game with 'the boys'. Beer and hot dogs, of course, were the requisite nourishment at such times. Of course - with the adrenalin pumping, it is fairly easy to over-indulge in the liquid libations............ and on a rare occasion Frank did. 
How he got his HUGE car into the driveway without driving over the lawn and then INTO THE GARAGE never leaving a mark on car or garage - was oft a mystery. It was then that the clothes line was put to its second use as a guide line..... using his hands, Frank would edge from the big garage to the little garage, and then to the clothesline strung on the left side of the little garage. From the clothesline, it was hand-over-hand to the house...............
where diminutive Margaret waited patiently in the kitchen for her errant husband ........... 
Who would finally get his feet in the door - just - where Margaret would mete out her special brand of rolling-pin justice ensuring that her bed would NOT be slept in by a snoring, drunken male. For he who over-imbibed - the kitchen floor was certainly a good enough place to spend the night!