Family Move Day-1952

My family moved to Houston Heights sometime before I was born in March 1943. I know they lived in Lufkin when my sister, Joyce, was born in December 1940. My parents were still living in the Kosse area when my brother, Maurice, was born in July 1936. We were still living in Heights when my sister, Joann, was born in September 1945.

During World War II, products of any kind including food, were hard to get and many items required a ration book to be able to buy. There were federal price controls in addition to rations. Some items like tires could not be purchased at any price because manufacturing was converted to making materials for the military to be used in the war. There were other price controls like freezing housing rent prices. The little house on Lawrence and 23rd we lived in, the monthly rent was frozen at $9 per month and the owners could not raise the rent or sell it until the price control regulations were eliminated. Times were really that bad. That house was better than a tent, but it was not much different than our neighbors.

When the price controls were lifted, my parents would have found a way to pay higher rent; however, the owner sold the property for a business to be built there. That forced my parents to find other housing quickly. They were able to find a house on Heatherwood on the Northside that was almost a new construction. Many of the homes in that area were purchased using GI VA loans. The original owners were moving, and my Dad was able to assume the VA loan to buy the house. That was the only house my parents ever owned, and Mom lived there the rest of her life.

It was Thanksgiving weekend 1952 and it was “move day”. My parents had seen the new house, but we kids had not. We knew we would be changing schools and would be leaving our friends behind. We were moving from a small old house to a newer house, but it still only had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a small kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and a one-car garage. We did not have a lot of furniture or other items to move. My Dad borrowed a trailer for the move, and I remember it was old and had low sides like for the farm. My parents had a dresser with a mirror for their bedroom that may have been the only thing of value we had. It was not new, and I do not know when or where they got it, but it was important to Mom.

After we had everything loaded on the trailer and secured as best we could with ropes, Dad told Maurice (16 at that time) to ride on the trailer to make sure that nothing would fall off. The rest of us were in the car. Our route to the new house was 23^rd to Yale, Yale to Crosstimbers, Crosstimbers to Airline, Airline to Little York, and Little York to the new subdivision. All those streets were a lot different in 1952. I was in the back seat watching the trailer to let my Dad know if anything looked wrong. We were heading north on Airline, in front of the Airline Drive-in, when I saw the mirror blow off the dresser and break on the street.

I was screaming for Dad to stop, I think for a moment my parents thought Maurice had fallen off the trailer. Maurice was holding the dresser, but he had no idea that a gust of wind would blow the mirror off the supports. After my parents got over the fear of his falling, my Dad got angry that he did not keep the mirror from falling off. The mirror frame was not totally damaged, but the glass was in a million pieces. After we got the glass off the street, we continued our trip to the new house. The stress levels were high, so we were careful not to anger Dad more than he was. I could tell that Mom was sad about her mirror, but she knew it was not Maurice’s fault.

When we got to the house, it was the first time the four of us kids had seen it, so we were excited. The kids got the front bedroom and my parents the back bedroom. The two double beds left only a little space between them to get in bed with the beds against the wall on each side. There was a small closet for our clothes. Four kids, 16, 12, 9, and 7 shared a 12×12 bedroom, and six people shared a single bathroom, but it was home. Years later, we converted the garage into a bedroom for my brother and me, allowing Joyce and Joann to have a bedroom for just them. I was 16 before I had a bedroom for just me and Joann was 14 when she got a bedroom for just her.

The world has changed so much since those days, and we all have become spoiled by all that people have today. Minor inconveniences make people angry, and we have forgotten how blessed we are to live in a country where we are all so much better off in just one generation. People panic when the internet is out, or they get bad service on their cell phones. They cannot imagine the feeling on the day when your first telephone was installed in your home, and it is a party line shared with up to seven other families.

1 John 2:15-17 New King James Version
¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.