My first home in Lakewood, Ohio, circa 1963.
I apologize for the quality of the picture above — it’s a scan from a slide made over 45 years ago.
This house was my first home after graduating from college — not bad, huh?
Actually, I only lived in part of the second floor. I can’t remember how I found out about the house — I think I read about it in an ad in the Lakewood paper. But somehow I contacted the elderly couple who owned the house and who were looking for renters. They had a bedroom with private bath and a shared kitchen for rent on the second floor. There was a separate entrance for me to use to get to the room. Since I thought what they were asking was very reasonable, I took the room.
The good Lord takes care of Indiana farm boys in the big city. When I moved to Lakewood in August prior to beginning my teaching job, I found that the other room for rent had been rented to another new teacher at Marshall. Larry taught English and was from southern Ohio, which is about as rural as my home in northern Indiana.
Larry and I were able to carpool to school almost every day that year. The house, as you can see, was very spacious and in one of the older neighborhoods of Lakewood. It was only about two blocks off the lake and I will admit that I enjoyed living there very much.
Unfortunately in the spring of that first year the owners sold the house to a younger couple, so I had to get myself another place to live. But this house was an important part of my world for nearly a year. When showing Betsy around some of my haunts in 2002, we drove past this house and it was still there.
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Tags: American Life, Cleveland, My World
Senior Moments 
February 23, 2009 at 10:32 pm |
What a lovely look back! Thank you for sharing!
February 23, 2009 at 10:35 pm |
What a place for a just-graduated-from-college guy to live!
And I guess roses can handle snow, but is the ground too solid to dig? My roses are putting on new shoots because they are against a west wall, and there is so much sun here. This happens even when it gets in then teens at night.
February 23, 2009 at 10:55 pm |
Oh how i would love to see the inside of this home. i love these kind of homes. They have so much history to tell
February 24, 2009 at 12:02 am |
Nothing like recollecting the past as you drive past them! It still is a beautiful house.
February 24, 2009 at 12:03 am |
Oh now that is a good post. What a big house to live in for your first home.
Like Lilli, I am very interested and intrigued to see what’s inside that huge house.
February 24, 2009 at 2:23 am |
A personal and delightful post. I am glad you found such a lovely place to share when you first left home. It is lonely and hard enough to start colledge and leave the country life behind.
February 24, 2009 at 3:17 am |
An enjoyable post George. I think back to all the times the good Lord was watching over me too.
February 24, 2009 at 4:37 am |
George: How neat that you lived in that big house in NE Ohio not far from my home.
February 24, 2009 at 5:37 am |
Such a personal post againand as always so interesting. For 45 year image it’a turned out well especially form a slide.
February 24, 2009 at 7:24 am |
Good memories George. Do you ever long for those days when things seemed so much simpler?
February 24, 2009 at 8:10 am |
LOL George I thought for a minute you were doing mighty good when you were in college. Thats neat its still there. Wonder if the young couple who bought it still own it?
February 24, 2009 at 8:15 am |
What a gorgeous house. What a great memory. Are you sure you and Larry were “good” tenants….and not bad ones to make the owners sell??
Kidding. Sounds like a wonderful Year long memory for you!
February 24, 2009 at 8:27 am |
Looks like a lovely place to lie.Memories are wonderful.
Blessings,Ruth
February 24, 2009 at 8:30 am |
Wow, that would have been pretty cool George!
I knew you were a teacher and I was thinking I should’ve taught in Ohio. 🙂
February 24, 2009 at 8:34 am |
It’s a beautiful, big house and your were really blessed that year, especially with Larry, I think.
This is my favorite line in your post: “The good Lord takes care of Indiana farm boys in the big city.” Amen to that.
February 24, 2009 at 9:07 am |
Wonderful memories George.
February 24, 2009 at 9:12 am |
What a beautiful home to spend a year living in. What a blessing that must have been for you!
February 24, 2009 at 9:22 am |
I bet that was a nice place to live. Looks like it probably had nice flowerbeds as well.
February 24, 2009 at 10:15 am |
Memories past, its good to go back and see the house still there, with all the memories floding back.
Great place and photo.
February 24, 2009 at 10:20 am |
What a great old house and a great place to live.
I’ll have to post a picture of one of our first homes. It was a castle in Scotland – though like you we only lived in one part of it.
February 24, 2009 at 11:32 am |
What a beautiful house! My first home on my own wasn’t THAT glorious! Nice to have photos to bring back memories – and nice to visit places from our past with our significant other!
February 24, 2009 at 1:50 pm |
That’s a great look-back!
From Jane, one of Betsy’s friends!
February 24, 2009 at 1:53 pm |
What luck you had to have found such a beautiful house to live in for a reasonable rent. It really is the most wonderful house so I can well see how it gave you and your country friend good start in your new urban surroundings all those years ago. A lovely story once again.
February 24, 2009 at 2:12 pm |
That looks like such a grand house to live in…did you see the rest of it and was it as spacious as it looks?
February 24, 2009 at 3:51 pm |
That looks like a wonderful place to live! Photos are so great the way they hold memories!
February 24, 2009 at 5:20 pm |
Fun to go back in time and see it still standing. I hope you went up and patted the wall!
February 24, 2009 at 6:04 pm |
Yes at first I thought whoa rich boy!LOL But then I read on, what a lovely house to be able to rent in!
February 24, 2009 at 6:34 pm |
It looks a lot like some of the beautiful old homes around Cleveland, where husband’s family is. I hope the subsequent owners kept the place up!
February 24, 2009 at 6:38 pm |
Hi George,
That’s a really wonderful looking house. Looks Victorian! Thanks for stopping by my place today!!
Sherrie
February 24, 2009 at 7:57 pm |
Great shot as always George, what a lovely home.
Have great a day!
Guy
Regina In Pictures
February 25, 2009 at 1:11 am |
I love very much the way You You are telling from Your past. It is really interesting and what more is that You show so old photos. That’s life.
Concerning Your house it is a majestic one!
Regards.
February 25, 2009 at 1:28 am |
wow…i love to live in a house like yours to call as my own…we now live in a rented apartment…God bless
February 25, 2009 at 4:34 am |
Great house. Like an old American movie. I like the yard around the house.
February 25, 2009 at 5:19 am |
That’s a lovely memory! What a neat place to start out from.
February 25, 2009 at 11:43 am |
Not bad at all. I don’t think it’s a bad scanned shot either.
🙂
February 25, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
How fun to revisit your past through this scanned photo. Looking at it gives me hope about scanning some of my old slides ;–)
Hugs and blessings,
February 25, 2009 at 5:59 pm |
absolutely great from this far i could imagine up close . am now starting or should i say finishing my own first home.
Take care man Gods blessing to you and yours