Love that boy!

As a child I lived at 4513 Burdette Street, here in Omaha. We had a coal furnace in the center of a dirt floor basement. The coal was delivered by a soot covered man in rolled up bib overalls. The outside entrance to the coal room was a heavy iron flap that was hinged from the top and secured by a latch from inside the coal room. The delivery man shoveled coal down a metal shoot right onto the coal room floor. When needed my dad shoveled coal into the furnace for the home heating. My dad was a traveling salesman, so when he was out on the road, my mother shoveled the coal for us. My mother was a sturdy Scandinavian girl from a farm five miles north of Madrid, Iowa. You remember her when she worked as my receptionist until she resigned prior to her 90 th birthday.

In the spring, when the furnace was no longer needed, the cinders and trash were shoveled out, and dumped in the alley to fill the winter ruts made by garbage trucks. The garbage trucks subsequently crushed and refilled the ruts. In our neighborhood it was a known fact that hollyhocks can only grow in an alley. Burdette Street science indicates that cinders and trash make the necessary poor growing substance that makes hollyhocks thrive. Judging from the minimal amount of flowers and foliage in our yard, the whole yard probably consisted of cinder-infused substrate.

Union Pacific Railroad. Was it Mother’s Loomis grandfather who worked for UPR? (I just went to look in the Loomis genealogy book by Mother. Wow, 20 years have not been kind to its “binding”!)

Patti, delightful to hear your memories! And Jeff, your’s too! I was thinking of our University Drive basement, too. A *very* cool place for 5-8 year old Josh and a 1-4 year old Jon to prowl around in.

Fun to hear, too, your memories, Clara, and Hal’s, too.

Great writing, Clara!