Mitch’s Memories

Roger Little has asked his family to share their memories of the House with us.  Here’s what his son Mitch had to say:

“Here are some of my memories.

 As a young boy my family would often travel from Craig, Colorado to Fruita to be with my Grandparents for many major Holidays.  I think we all enjoyed going for Easter because it was always warmer in the Grand Valley than in Craig.  And, Thanksgiving was always a treat because of my Grandmother’s wonderful meals and the warm feeling of the big house they lived in.  It seemed much bigger to a small boy than it appears now.

 I remember my Grandpa inviting me to help him make “flapjacks” on the coal stove on the north wall of the kitchen.  Being next to the stove was the warmest part of the house.  I remember my mother holding me and rocking in the rocking chair next to that stove.  I remember a mean Siamese cat that prowled around that kitchen too.  As I grew older I also remember playing many games of “carom” on a board placed on the large kitchen table.  I don’t think we ever knew exactly how the game was supposed to be played but I enjoying flicking the game pieces with my forefinger until it hurt.  I also played many games of checkers with my Grandpa on that table.

 I slept in a bedroom in the southwest corner on the second floor when we visited.  There was a large bookshelf on the west wall that had many, many volumes of National Geographic magazines and quite a few volumes of George Schulz’s stories about Charlie Brown and the Gang.  I usually chose to read about Charlie Brown.  I remember laying in bed on warm summer nights listening to the train whistles through the open windows.  I also remember my Grandparent’s room was in the southeast corner on the second floor and I was not supposed to go in that room.  And, I remember my Grandma constantly telling me not to run in the house or up and down the stairs – something about “stirring up the dust”.   I really stirred up a lot of “dust” one day when I accidentally dropped my BB gun over the stairway railing and onto my Grandma’s beautiful piano.  It only made a very small divet but she made it sound like it would never be properly tuned again.

 The house had open vents in the floor upstairs that I could see through to downstairs.  I assume now that they were designed to transmit heat from downstairs to upstairs but, as a youngster I used them to keep track of what the adults were doing downstairs when I had been sent to bed.

 The “side porch” on the east side of the house was the place to be on hot summer days.  It was screened so that cool breezes would flow through and it was shaded all around by large trees.  There was a “glider” lounge there that three or four people could sit on.  I think I remember that Grandpa finally put a television out there at some point.

 There was also an enclosed porch on the south side of the house off the kitchen.  On the west side of that porch was a small room where Grandpa stored various tools and other interesting things for a young boy to get into.  I found a magnifying glass there that I learned you could use with the sun to burn things.  I never started a fire that I didn’t quickly extinguish.  When I got a little older I was also aware that he kept a .22 caliber rifle in that room.

 Grandpa always gave me the job of sweeping out the garage.  I remember that the dust I would create always had a very unique odor – something I never smelled when sweeping out our garage in Craig.  I had been made aware of the Gilsonite plant west of town and I used to think that had something to do with it.  I also remember putting a ping pong table in the garage and playing ping pong with my father.

 I remember a big swing in the backyard that had been constructed out of railroad ties.  It was very sturdy and very tall.  I would swing as high as possible and jump out and see how far I could go.  I also remember that it was normal back then to burn trash in a concrete container that Grandpa had out back on the alley.  And, there was a very large currant bush along the sidewalk, adjacent to the swing, as you went from the house out to the trash burner.  There was also a very large garden space behind the garage.

 Out front of the house was an irrigation ditch that was always a source of fun for a young boy.  I’m sure I didn’t understand how it affected neighbors downstream when I built dams and stopped the water to see how big of a “lake” I could create.  I spent many hours hunting and catching “crawdads” in that ditch.  Somehow my hands always had that same strange smell from the garage on them after I got that mud on them.

 There was a public library just three or four doors down the street to the east.  I was thrilled to get a library card and amazed that I could walk there by myself and bring books home.

 All of my memories of my Grandparents and my family’s visits to their big house are happy ones – I don’t remember any times there that weren’t filled with joy and wonder.”

We’re really enjoying these memories and hope you, our readers, are as well.  We’ll be sharing more as they come to us.  🙂