At Home

My parents and I really enjoyed each other's company.

We had breakfast together every day and then went about doing the things we wanted to do.

At the time I am writing about dad was retired so sometimes he would read his beloved weekly "Time" magazine so that he would be up-to-date for the Sunday school adult class discussions, sometimes he would quietly practice old familiar pop tunes on his Hammond electric organ (with foot pedals) and later in the day he might watch football games on TV with the sound turned off. (He didn't like the announcer's gab.)

Mom did all her housewifely chores, talked to her friends on the telephone, painted pictures and worked in her hillside (mostly flower) garden.

I had no "for pay" job at all, so I worked on my various small construction projects around the house and garden--adding a chicken pen with nesting facilities for the four hens and one rooster we bought at the feed store as chicks and building a "bath fence" on the cliff edge of our path to the top ridge of Laughing Mountain. We had all experienced the practical outdoor "bath fences" for plumbing-free hand held showers in the jungles of Liberia when we visited missionary Brother Joe on separate visits and wanted to have one for ourselves--though I think I was the only one who actually used it. (Did you know that if you fill a two gallon plastic bucket with water  and left it out in the sun that by afternoon the water will be nice and warm for a shower?) And I practiced playing the old junk-store piano in the little garage (which was entirely used for storage) for a few minutes every day

We ate lunch together and supper too. Since I was mostly a vegetarian at the time, I usually cooked, but used familiar seasonings and dishes so got no complaints and plenty of praise.

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