vintage memories
Sweet E By Kirsten Hudson lot of memories. Like the winter nights when Ellen would set up a card table over the heating vent in the dining room, cover it with blankets and make a cozy fort. Or the time she brought so many cats home that there were more than 30 living in the house. Or the time her dad was teaching her how to drive and she accidentally reversed into their other car and wrecked both Lincolns. The house was a good place to grow up, she said. “This neighborhood used to be full of children. We were always outside playing until it got dark and we had to be called in.” Ellen remembers playing hide-and-go-seek, red light green light, and tag for hours with the other neighborhood kids. And when they got hungry they’d go to a friend’s house down the street and make Miracle Whip and white bread sandwiches. A different era Her parents purchased the home in 1945. With just two bedrooms in the house, Ellen and her two sisters had to squeeze into one tiny room. Outfitted with bunk beds and one twin bed, there wasn’t a lot of space. “And not only that, we also had a chest freezer in our room,” Ellen said. The house may have been small, but the family’s lives weren’t. “Holidays were always Home llen Green grew up in a 1940s bungalow-style house in Lawrence, KS, where she still lives today. Over the years the house has witnessed a
A few memories from more than 60 years in one house Home
About 20 years later, her mom passed away. “When she was alive, we were talking and she said, ‘Do you want this house?’ and I said, ‘I don’t think I can live here without you,’” Ellen said. They decided Ellen would sell the house and split the earnings with her two sisters. “But after she died, I found that I could live here,” Ellen said. “I looked at other houses, but everything I could afford was a duplex and none of them had backyards. And no square footage for what I’ve got here. So I said, ‘Well, I think I’ll put some money into the house and redo it.” Since then she’s worked hard to make the house her own. She started by ripping out the wood paneling in every room and got rid of the orange shag carpet. Today, Ellen has created a relaxing modern-style home with hardwood floors, black and white accents and a few vintage touches, like artwork painted years ago by friends. And she always has some kind of home project in the works. Her favorite part of the house is com- ing soon: a screened-in porch. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to spend my spring and summer and fall nights out there,” she said.
really special,” she said. “My dad worked on commission-only as a pipe organ salesman. If he didn’t sell any pipe organs, there was no money. But they always made sure that we had really nice Christmases.” She still remembers opening wonderful presents, like a Revlon doll. “My parents went without so we could have things,” she said. “If I could redo it, I would have said, ‘No, I don’t want anything.’” Her parents also regularly hosted dinner parties at the house. And while Ellen couldn’t participate, she watched as her mother set up the elaborate table, complete with mini salt and pepper shakers for each guest. “This was in the Fifties and so my mother would be dressed to the nines,” Ellen said. “She wore all these petticoats and she was just beautiful.” The dinner parties would include cocktails with hors d’oeuvres, dinner, and then dessert and after-dinner drinks, like grasshoppers. “And my mother would put these little silver cups with cigarettes on the tables with ash trays and everybody would sit around and smoke at the table,” Ellen said. “It was quite the thing. It was a whole different era. Because when I growing up, everybody was like June Cleaver.” If these walls could talk Ellen experienced lots of happy times in the house, but there were a few sad times too. Her dad died on his birthday in Octo- ber 1985, while they were waiting at home with a party ready.
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Kirsten also always has a home project she’s working on. Check out her vintage decorating ideas and DIY projects on her blog, Red Leaf Style, at redleafstyle.com.
VintageKC / Fall 2014 46
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