The Bell House

My mom took these pictures when she went down to L.A. this January. They went and visited the house both my gramma and my mom grew up in. The lady who lives there now let them go inside and walk down memory lane. My mom took pictures and I will be sharing them with you along with my memories of the old Bell house. It is located in Bell, California.

My mom wrote: "Judy is the gal on the right, my writer friend. Mrs. Leva (the lady on the left) is the lady that has lived in the house for the past 16 years. She bought it from my folks. She graciously let us in to look around. All the windows have been replaced with new, modern ones. The Levas use the front steps by the car. We always went up the steps by the kitchen (to the left of the car-out of the photo.)...The bedroom I had just before I married Tim is the one on the second story, you can see the dormer windows. (I won't tell you about the green smears on the wall in that room when Phil had it. We had such a hard time getting him to use a kleenex. Boys!)"

My mom wrote: "I think this pic of my mom is fast becoming my all time favorite that I have of her. She is in the hallway that leads to the back porch. We used to have a chalkboard where the flowers are behind her. (I was playing around in Photoshop and sepia-toned the pic.) All three photos were taken with my 50mm lens before I dropped and broke it. Sniffle,sniffle. Boy it could take sharp pics. Tim's comment when I told him, "You get what you pay for." (It was a cheapie.)"

I actually remember the chalkboard that my mom is talking about. It was a little green one with a wooden frame. I remember the little hallway that led to the back porch that was also a sun room. There was a couch that had duck pillows all over it, and you had to keep the pillows on it in order to stay comfortable because the back of the couch was really hard! And then there was also the washer and dryer out there. I had a little blanky that I took everywhere with me. One day my gramma told me that it needed to be washed. I could hardly bear to part with it but she told me it was "icky" and she put it in the washer. I could not stand being apart from it from it for that long so when my mom pulled it out I asked if I could have it. My mom told me that it needed to go in the dryer, but I insisted and I walked around with a damp blanky the rest of the day.