Our Wedding Day

66 years ago in the morning of Nov. 27 1954, my Dad and I went to our parish priest to ask permission to marry.  Rayleine and one of her parents was doing the same thing with her parish priest. 

You have to understand that as a Catholic in those days you had to get permission to wed, and banns had to be announced for three weeks prior to the wedding. I only had 10 days leave.  

Both of our priests did their damnedest to talk us out of this marriage. Unbeknownst to the other, we both informed the priests that if they wouldn't marry us, we would go to the court house and get  married. The both relented and gave permission. 

My Dad took me to Rae's house where I picked up my future brother-in-law's car. That evening I drove to downtown Seattle to get the wedding rings at the Bon Marche. Why there? Mom worked there and had a 15 percent discount.  

On the way I ran into into another car and did some damage to my brother-in-law's car. The person I ran into was an old schoolmate who took pity on me and told me it was no problem. I found a parking garage and the attendant asked what had happened. I explained my sad state of affairs and he said he would see what he could do to fix up the car. Got the rings for $82.00 (with the discount). 

Picking up the car, I must have really looked sad. The attendant had repaired the car, couldn't tell any damage, no charge - still don't understand that series of events. 

The only piece of advice my Dad gave me, he told me when I give the rings to Rae, "Don't just give them to her, get down on your knee and ask her to marry you." I took his advice and did that. 

Fast forward 50 years, Dec. 4, 2004. Rae asked me if I remembered what I had said in 1954. I said "Yes, I asked you to marry me, and you said yes."

She said, "Do you remember what else you said?" "I probably said, 'Yeah let's go to bed.'"

She said, "No, you said "Do you know that in when we celebrate our 50th anniversary, you will be 69 years old and I will only be 67.'"  I had completely forgotten about that, but it turned out to be true.

Rae Howe

I had been planning on continuing this blog chronologically, but events over the past 11 months have decided me to just start writing down things as they happen, and including anecdotes from time past as I remember them.  This first installment is going to pretty difficult for me to write, I am hoping it will be therapeutic for me and maybe for some others in my family, so please bear with me as I am not an author in any way shape or form.

In Aug. 2013 our family Doctor sent Rae to a cardiologist in Olympia WA because he was unable to control her blood pressure with the drugs he was providing.  The cardiologist in an abundance of caution ordered several different types of tests to attempt to determine if there was anything he could do differently to control her BP.  One of the tests he ordered was and Aortic ultra-sound.  He explained he did this because her Mother had succumbed to an aortic aneurism. When we went to get the results of this scan, he explained that the aorta was okay, but he was more concerned with a mass that he noted on her liver.  He recommended that we contact our Primary Care physician, who informed us that he had seen many of these types of masses and it was really nothing to be greatly concerned about, but he did refer us to a gastroenterologist, who upon reviewing the ultra-sound immediately, on his day off, recommended and made an appointment with a liver specialist at Virginia-Mason Hospital, in addition to a Surgeon and Radiologist for an MRI and follow-up.  We went to Seattle at the end of Sep. 2013, had the MRI and follow-up with the “liver specialist”.  He, the “liver specialist” informed us that what Rae had was a “Giant Hemangioma”.  A Hemangioma is what most of us call a birthmark, we have all seen them on various people.  He told us we really had nothing to be concerned about, the chances of this mass bleeding was NIL.  He canceled the appointments with the Surgeon and the Radiologist, based on his diagnosis.  On Dec. 18^th, after a routine Dr.’s appointment with her Primary Care Physician we went out for a late Breakfast early lunch.  She ordered what she would normally have, but when it arrived she could not eat.  She appeared to me to be extremely pale, and she said she was awfully tired and weak and experiencing abdominal pain.  I paid the bill, and decided to return to the Dr.’s office, to get his advice on what steps to take, against her desires, she just wanted to go home.  He came out of his office, took her pulse while the nurse took her BP, which had dropped from over 200 to less than 120 in less than 2 hours.  He told me to take her immediately to the ER at Providence Centralia Hospital, (the only hospital in town), which fortunately was just around the corner, this was around noon.  The ER Dr. after his first examination told me that he was going to send her to Seattle, Harbor View Hospital, and the major trauma center for the Pacific Northwest. During the course of the day, as nurses were unable to get an IV started her conditioned worsened, she was losing a considerable amount of blood from somewhere.  The Dr. finally cut into her carotid artery to get an IV started and about 5:00PM he said he was going to have her sent to Seattle by helicopter. She left for Seattle around 7:30PM, en-route she was given a unit of blood.  On arrival at Harbor View she was given more blood and admitted to the ICU for observation.  I followed her to Seattle by car, arriving around midnight.  She remained in Harbor View for 4 days.  During this time we were assured that the chances of the liver mass bleeding again was less than 10%.  The biggest problem they seemed to be having was again trying to control her BP.  On the 31^st of Dec. she experienced the same kind of symptoms that she had on the 18^th, with the exception of the paleness and weakness.  We were told several times that if she experienced any of those symptoms to go immediately to an ER., which we did.  Again the ER Dr. wanted to send her by helicopter to Harbor View, but because of the dense fog that was out of the question, and instead they sent her by surface ambulance.  This time Linda, our daughter, insisted she was going to go with me when I followed her Mother to Seattle.  This time there was no bleeding just the abdominal pain, and again the ICU Dr.’s main concern was trying to control her BP.  Let me add an aside here.  Harbor View ER is, as I have said, the major trauma unit for the Pacific Northwest, and it is not a place anyone in their right mind would want to spend New Year’s Eve.  We, Linda and I, were amazed at the way Doctors, Nurses and support staff in the ER and ICU, were able to maintain their composure and equilibrium in all of that chaos.  The people that were brought into the ER were the dregs of society, the most ungrateful, un-considerate group of people I have ever had the misfortune to be in close proximity to, and having spent 24 plus years in the U. S. Navy I have seen some pretty bad folks.  At any rate, after about 4 days, they, the ER Dr.’s felt they had controlled her BP and released her back to Chehalis, with no mention of her liver mass.  Sometime during January 2014, Rae’s gastroenterologist called to inquire as to her condition especially after the bleeding episode, he wanted to know if she had had a biopsy performed as he apparently had requested at Virginia-Mason.  When we told him what had occurred he said he would get back to us.  Shortly after that we got a telephone call from the Surgeon at VM and we made an appointment to have a biopsy done.  The Surgeon seemed to be quite reluctant to even suggest that a biopsy was even necessary, but he scheduled it any way for the 12^th of Feb, we had to go up on the 11^th to have blood tests taken because they wanted to do the biopsy early on the 12^th.  She was all set to have the biopsy but the Doctor who was to perform the biopsy (a needle biopsy) refused to do it because her BP was way too high.  The result was that they admitted her to Virginia-Mason to again try to control her BP.  She finally had the test completed on the 14^th of Feb. (Happy Valentine’s Day).  We were told that the results would be available in about three to four days and to call the Surgeon who ordered the test, and to “bug him for the results” until we got an answer.  Because the next Monday was a holiday I waited until Tuesday PM to call and was told the Surgeon was on vacation for a week, I asked to speak to one of his “team” and was told they would get back to me.  We waited.  I was going to call Wednesday PM to “bug” them again, when about 12:30PM  the 19^th of Feb, the Surgeon called us and informed us that it was not a “Giant Hemangioma” but an angio-sarcoma on the liver an extremely rare, inoperable and extremely difficult type of cancer to treat.  I did not feel then, nor do I feel now that that type of information should be relayed to a person over the impersonal device of a telephone. He did recommend an oncologist at VM who could treat us, and naturally we accepted, we didn’t even know that there are oncologists in Chehalis. We found by accident an oncologist in Olympia who was willing to treat Rae, however after a conversation with a nurse who specializes in cancer treatment, our daughter, and a conversation we had with our primary care physician, we opted to consult an oncologist right here in Chehalis, in fact only about four miles from where we were living. When we were at Virginia-Mason, they told us to make an appointment with our Primary Care Physician and they would send all of her records to them.  We did and had an appointment on the 24^th of Feb.  He had no idea that she had been in the Hospital, nor any idea she had cancer.  He was the one that recommended the oncologist in Chehalis that finally took care of Rae.  We had our first appointment on the 27^th of Feb, the Dr. was apologetic for being 10 minutes late but said he was having a hard time understanding the records he had received from VM, as they included the records for a male patient.  We had done a little research on angio-sarcoma of the liver and found that it only occurs in 3% of the population and of that 3% only 3% of those were female. The research also told us that the length of survival was less than two years, after diagnoses.  Her oncologist would not give us a prognosis based on his past experience with Cancer patients.  She started Chemo on 13 March after having a “Port” inserted into her upper chest to save having to have new needle holes every time she had to receive any kind of injection. She had a very bad reaction to the first dose of Chemo, they stopped for about 30 minutes and started again after all of her vitals had somewhat returned to normal. From then on she had very little reaction.  On 22 March her oncologist ordered a blood transfusion, which was completed at Providence Centralia Hospital on an outpatient basis.  She had had Chemo on the 20^th of March, again on the27th, and on the 3^rd of April.  Because of her reactions to the later Chemo treatment the Dr. cancelled the Chemo she was supposed to have had on th 10^th of April.  The evening of 10 April, she had been vomiting several times during the day, feeling nauseous and getting extremely weak.  I called her oncologist, and he told me to take her to the ER at Centralia.  She was admitted late that evening, with very bad blood readings.  During the period between the 19^th of Feb and the middle of Apr. her edema had become increasingly bad.  She gained over thirty pounds of liquid, will I had lost in excess of 20 pounds.  One evening she fell in the bathroom and I couldn’t pick her up, so I had to call Linda and Vic to come and help.  We had discussed briefly about moving into assisted living, but I said no that I could take care of her.  After her fall and she had started chemo, the oncologist’s office was quite near a Retirement Center.  After her Chemo treatment on the 27^th of Mar, we visited the retirement home and decided to go ahead and move in.  Our move in date was set for the 18^th of April.  After being admitted to the Hospital her condition continued to worsen, nothing they could do would lessen the edema, it seemed to shift around one day her arm and hand would be hardly recognizable as a arm or hand, next day they would be normal.  Her mind started going around the 13^th.  On the morning of the 15^th her oncologist told me she wasn’t going to make it and he would make arrangements for Hospice. We, Rae and I had agreed long ago that there would be no heroic actions to keep us alive, still it was the hardest thing I have ever done to tell the oncologist that it was okay to remove all of the tubes and needles.  He put her on a morphine drip to keep her as comfortable as possible. I do believe she was in no pain, which I will be eternally grateful for.  I called all of the children and told them. I had been spending days and nights with her, just going home to shower and shave and move some items to our new home.  On the 16^th we were moved to a larger room, I did not leave her from that time.  Our youngest daughter arrived from Virginia on the 16^th, and our son arrived at 9:10AM on the 17^th. She passed away at 9:15AM on the 17^th.  She was cremated in Tacoma WA shortly thereafter and was buried at sea by the United States Navy on the 11^th of July.  I do not have all of the particulars of that burial yet. 

I have been working on this for quite some time now.  Could only do a little bit at a time.  Some of the dates and times may not be completely accurate bnt are as close as I can remember.  There are two things I have really learned and am still learning from this experience.  One, people will tell me you had over 59 years together, you should be happy for that. Yes, that is a long time I guess, but it was not long enough at all.  The second lesson is when people say that they know what you are going through.  I know I used to say that.  I know better now, I have no idea what pain people in my same position suffered and no one knows what I am experiencing, and I am not smart enough to put this experience into words.  I have never had any great fear of dying, I have always wanted to live as long as I could, as long as I was healthy and not a burden on anyone.  Now, I have to admit, there are times when I would welcome death, no I am NOT suicidal, just not sure how to live without her.

Great-Grandfather Beitz

This will be a short post. Just received an e-mail from our daughter Joan, who is the family historian, bless her little heart.  In the e-mail were some pictures from my Mothers side of the family.  I have always thought that we were short lived in the Howe and Beitz, however it seems that my Great-GrandFather Jacob Beitz lived to the ripe old age of 89, so I guess we are not so short lived at all.  I'm not sure about my oldest Brother and Sister, but am pretty sure I am to only one of the younger kids to actually have met our Grandfather Wendel William Beitz.  Shortly after I joined the Navy in Dec 1953,  I was sent to Bainbridge Maryland to attend Quartermaster "A" school where I was suppose to learn Navigation and Visual Communications, hah, little did they know, but that is a story for a different time.  During one of the long weekends I decided to hitchhike to Buffalo New York to visit my Mom's family a distance of about 380 miles.  On arrival I stayed with one of Moms sisters don't remember her name, Mom came from a large family 11 brothers and sisters.  Anyway, it seems there was some kinda feud going on within the Beitz family but they put their differences aside so I could meet as much of  the family as I could on such a short visit.  On Saturday morning we went to another sisters house where Mom's dad, my Grandfather was staying.  He wasn't in the room when we all came traipsing in but someone went upstairs to get him  When he came downstairs, my Aunt said "Dad this is Jim, Evy's youngest son", his response, "Evy?, who in the hell is Evy?".  "You know Evelyn, she married Walt Howe", Grandfather Beitz - "Oh yeah that one armed son-of-bitch that took my daughter out to the Indians".  Aunt, "I think you should go back upstairs and lie down Dad".  That meeting lasted about 3 minutes, one of the longest three minutes of my life.  I really felt sorry for all of the people there,  Mom hadn't seen any of her family since it must have been around 1930 when they left Buffalo and moved to Ill. I remember Mom telling us that when they decided to move out to Washington State her whole family was in an uproar, they were terrified that everyone in the family would get scalped by the "injuns".

Just a little side note.Great-GrandFather Beitz

Alaska Cruise Jun 2012

As promised here is more of my later life and some of my older life.  We just returned from a Cruise/Land tour to Alaska with our Daughter and Son-in-law.  And here comes the some of the older life.  For those of you who don't know our Daughter, her name is Linda and she just celebrated her 53rd birthday, which is quite an accomplishment, as you will understand as we go on with this story. Linda was born 11 Jul 1958 at the Army Hospital in Fort Lawton WA, which was located in Seattle on really prime real estate.  I was at the time still stationed on my first ship, USS Whitehurst DE634, that was just transferred from the active fleet in Pearl Harbor to become a Reserve training ship in Seattle, which just happened to be my hometown.  We arrived in Seattle, I believe in Sept or Oct of '57 and Rae preceded us there.  She became pregnant shortly after the ship's arrival, I don't know how that happened, one of the mysteries of life.
At any-rate it turned out to be an extremely difficult pregnancy for Rae. At one point, in the spring, I don't remember the exact date, some time in Apr or May, during one of her many stays in the hospital, I was home with our oldest daughter when I received a phone call from the hospital telling me I should come in because they weren't sure that Rae would make it through the night due to her pernicious vomiting that they could not control and anemia.  When I arrived and after I saw what bad shape she was in I spoke at length with her Doctor, an Army Major,  and begged him to take the baby and save my wife, he refused, I guess because that was the law in those days, at least for the Army.  As you can tell, Linda made it, just barely but she did, and we are eternally grateful that she did.  I told the Doctor that my ship was scheduled to depart Seattle for 6 weeks of training in San Diego and he told me that I could not go, he didn't understand the way the Navy works.  I went back to my ship the next day and requested some leave and was refused.  When I went back and told the Doctor what the ship said he told me to stand by.  Shortly a Army enlisted man, don't know their rating structure at all, came into the waiting room and asked for me, when I identified myself
he said come with me, so being a dumb ass 2nd class I did, and when took a ride back to my ship where he asked me who was in-charge.  I told him that the Executive Officer was the man he would probably want to see, he went aboard and asked the people on the Quarterdeck to speak to the Exec. of course they wanted to know why.  When he told them he had a letter from the Commanding General of Fort Lawton they offered to take it to the Exec., he said no that he had to deliver it personally.  After the trip back to Fort Lawton, I returned to the Ship, where I was told the Exec. wanted to see me immediately.  He was livid, I had no idea what was in that letter.  But the Exec. told me that I had to put in a request for "Humanitarian Shore Duty", and also 10 day of emergency leave.  He also informed me in no uncertain terms that the request for  shore duty would not be granted and that I would have to pay my own way to San Diego when my leave was up. I do remember this was on a Friday.  I got Rae out of the Hospital on Sunday, and on Tuesday we were sitting in our house, watching TV and someone knocked on the door, it was a Western Union messenger with my orders to 4 months "Humanitarian Shore Duty" at the Naval Reserve Training Center in Seattle.  As I said Linda was born 11 Jul 1958, and an uglier baby you couldn't imagine, full of scratches and bruises, Rae had an extremely long labor, and when she first saw her newborn she cried.  It only took about 3 weeks when most of the marks, we thought some of them might be permanent birthmarks cleared up and she turned into the sweetest, holy terror a parent could hope for.  I guess this is one of the times that as the song goes "some of Gods greatest gifts are unanswered prayers".
Well, that was more than I had planned on saying, but I guess I have been known to run off at the mouth (or pen as it were) occasionally. 
Linda has been wanting to take an Alaskan Cruise sometime and this seemed to be the best year for it to happen, so we made our reservations on Princess Cruises to depart Vancouver BC,  Saturday June 23, sail north with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway before arriving at Whittier Alaska to disembark and begin the land portion of the Cruise. 
Because we had to take a motor coach, (bussie for you lowbrows), from SeaTac Intl. Airport to Vancouver, Linda volunteered(?) to drive, from Chehalis, they picked us up at about 6:00AM, check in time was 8:30AM.  Everything worked great, we were a little early which was okay because I think all 4 of us hate the idea of being late to anything.  Beautiful drive up I-5 through Seattle and points north. The last time I crossed the border at Blaine WA was about 63 or 64 years ago, a lot different now where we just drove through, the Border people asked if we enjoyed our stay in Canada, this time we all had to disembark from the bus, have our passports checked, I don't think they checked the luggage tho. Anyway - we arrived at the pier where the Diamond Princess awaited our arrival prior to sailing.  Both couples had balcony cabins which makes for a much more enjoyable cruise.  We spent Sunday at sea, ate dinner in the semi-formal dining room, (don't have to dress up tho).  If you have never been on a cruise eating in the dining rooms are a real treat.  We had two waiters, with a menu that is out of this world.  The portions are well within reason, that's the reason Rae and I prefer the dining room as opposed to the Buffet, where you can eat all you want and usually do.  The only time we didn't eat dinner in a dining room was on dress up nights, I suppose we could have but think we would have been uncomfortable doing so in casual clothes.  In the evening we went to a stage show, they have two showings each night.  Some are stage productions and others were a magician and a standup comic.  In Ketchikan all four of us went on a Lighthouse, Totems and Eagles tour, really just a bus tour of Ketchikan and surrounding areas, but the tour guides make these tours interesting.  From Juneau, Rae and I went on a Whale watching and Wildlife Quest, and if we hadn't had enough water on the trip up this was a boat tour.  We were quite fortunate, we were able to observe, humpback whales, a pod of orca's(killer whales), sea lions and many eagles both mature and adult. Linda and Vic took a Bike and Tram Elevation Sensation ride and from what they said they had a great time. I might mention here that the weather in all three of our ports was not the best, but I assume that is to be expected in Southeast Alaska.  On to Skagway, where we joined together to tak the Rail, Summit, Suspension Bridge and Garden lunch tour.  This consisted of a train ride over the basic same route the the Alaskan Gold miners took from Skagway to the Yukon on their search for Gold.  From what the tour guide told us very few of the many adventurers were successful in the quest for gold.  The scenery on this trip was magnificent.   Saw some bears, mountain goats and of course eagles.  The tour takes you into Canada, so another trip through customs, not quite as painful going into and coming out of Canada on the way back.  The suspension bridge was fun to cross, not really that exciting, its really well constructed out of metal, but it does sway somewhat.  Had lunch at a quaint little restaurant farm style place and had a nice tour of the farm afterwards.  Then on to Whittier, but on the way spent an entire day viewing some of the many Glaciers that make up Alaska, in Glacier Bay and College Fjord.  They are really fascinating, think Linda and Vic really enjoyed that part of the Cruise.  During this part of the cruise we were able to see several bears, eagles and whales.  Arrived in Whittier on Saturday Jun 30., where we transferred to buses for our trip to Denali, or Mt. McKinley, whichever you prefer. Some Alaskans object to calling it Mt. McKinley, never really understood why, but it seems he never once visited it.  Seems to me if someone name the largest Mountain on the North American Continent after me, I sure as hell would have gone and visited it at least once.  Of course I can understand why the native Alaskans want to call it Denali, that was the original name, oh well can't please anyone.  Don't think Vic enjoyed this part of the trip too much, to much sitting on the bus, as old as we are it was welcome for us.  The weather cooperated for this part of the trip, although we only got a glimpse of Denali, going with the natives cause I hate politicians.  Took a "nature" walk of about 3 hours by Byers lake, think Vic enjoyed this part of the trip, he just doesn't like sitting for such long periods of time, can't blame him really.  The tour guide was quite interesting and informative.  The only problem was that Linda got eaten up by mosquito's, guess Mom and I are too old and tough to be any good for them, not sure what Vic's problem was.  The tour guide, whom they call an "expert naturalist" was able to provide us with some a "healing salve" that Linda said really helped with her bites.  Didn't see any wild life on this part of the tour, but did see a lot of flora, didn't realize there are so many poisonous plants in the world.   Spent the night at the McKinley Princess Lodge.  Unlike the cruise part of the trip, we had to pay for our meals, and let me tell you eating in Alaska is an expensive proposition.  Caught the Coach to our next stop at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.  Aren't they clever name one Lodge McKinley and the other one Denali, try to keep everyone happy.  The coach trip was about 2 1/4 hours and was a pretty interesting ride.  One thing I will say about Princess Cruises they do train their guides, bus drivers and all the rest of their help extremely well.  Some of our hotel chains and transportation companies, especially AmTrak could take some lessons from them.
After arrival at Denali we took another Bus into Denali National Park, (actually Denali not McKinley). This was a 5 hour tour on a converted school bus.  The national park service will only allow certain types of buses inside the park confines and the normal tour coaches don't meet their requirements.  This was a great tour, it is really amazing what the Glaciers have done to the countryside.  We didn't see to much in the way of wildlife, but did get to watch several Caribou by a river.  The next day was on to Fairbanks.  But, before we arrived at the hotel we were dropped off at an authentic stern-wheeler for  cruise on the Chena and Tanana Rivers.  Because this is within the confines of Fairbanks, some of the homes along the river were just fabulous, still wouldn't want to live there, with to much of the year without sunshine.  Surprisingly Fairbanks is quite arid, doesn't get much more rain than San Diego.  During the cruise we had a bush pilot demonstrate take off and landing alongside the boat.  Along the way we stopped at an "Indian Village" where we saw demonstrations of salmon drying, a fish wheel,  and native arts and crafts put on by the native Athabascan's.  We also observed from the stern-wheeler Susan Butcher's famous Iditarod sled dog team.  Prior to the cruise we had lunch, almost like a schoolroom lunchroom, but it was good, and plentiful.  After the cruise we were whisked by motor coach to our hotel the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge.  Next day up early and off to the airport for our trip home.  One thing I would like to point out here, I love to fly, but have avoided it as much as possible after listening to the horror stories of how the TSA treats people and in invasive searches one has to go through.  Now, I don't know if what happened to us is peculiar to Fairbanks Airport or not, but those TSA agents were professional, courteous and gently with us.  The total body scan, is nothing, all one sees is basically an outline.  There were a couple of spots on mine and when I asked what they were the agent told me that it was nothing and explained that those things happen occasionally.  Let me warn anyone who does fly, everything must come out of your pockets, including kleenexs.  Linda accidentally left some kind of bottle of lotion in her carry-on luggage, the TSA agent had her take it out, examined it to make sure it wasn't anything prohibited and gave it back to her.  If this is the small price we have to pay to be able to fly safely, I don't mind at all.

Okay, here we go again.  Still up on Alaska Street. As I said before everything was rationed, including fuel for the furnace. Our furnace was a coal burner and as we were renting our landlord, I am guessing a little bit here, decided we shouldn't be wasting coal so he converted the coal furnace to sawdust.  That was horrible stuff.  They brought it in a large dump truck and just dumped it by the coal shoot and then we had to shovel it down to the basement.  The pile of sawdust looked really soft and inviting and one of my brothers talked me into jumping into it which I did, I still itch from it.  I don't remember exactly when we moved from Alaska Street to 33rd Ave So, but it was prior to the end of WWII. There were some things that went on on 33rd that I will not go into, leave it that it affected the remainder my life and my relations with most of my siblings, and pretty much led to my never really wanting to go home again.  I remember moving day, and really the only thing I remember about it is that Dad had one heck of a tooth ache and apparently wasn't much help.  People complain nowadays about not having enough room.  Remember there were 7 people living in one house.  The folks bought this house, it was less than 1,000 square feet.  One bathroom, 2 and 1/2 bedrooms.  The 1/2 bedroom was the boys room.  It was an add-on to the original house.  The folks put a bunk bed  and one twin bed, there was room left for one (very) small  chest of drawers. There was just barely enough room between the bunk beds and the twin bed for one person to stand up. A very small room.  No insulation, one window, one bare light-bulb dangling from the overhead. As only fair I got the upper bunk, Bob would pay for that later.  There were times when the ice was so thick on the inside of the window that you couldn't see out.  We weren't on city sewage so we had a septic tank that was hooked up very well and a lot of raw sewage went straight under the house, not pleasant.  The regular bedrooms weren't much bigger that the boys room but not as many people had to share them.  The girls had the bedroom nearest the bathroom.  Mom and Dad had to go through the girls room to get to the bathroom.  The living room was large enough for an 8X12 rug with maybe 18" on all four sides.  The one unique thing about this house was the living room floor.  It was laid down similar to the floor you would find at a roller skating rink.  It was made of solid oak about 1/2" thick by 2" wide by approximately 2' long.  There were several of these pieces left over, for patching I guess.  At any rate by the time the last of the Howe's left (Mom and Dad) all of those pieces were broken over one or other of the boys behind mostly Bills. Whenever i