The pictures don't necessarily date from the same time period but they strike me as the kinds of things that children like to take pictures of that adults never bother with.
I'm trying to remember some of the life we shared on Marshall Court and I have a few questions to ask you.
1. What animals did you have in the basement room menagerie? I remember an extravagant guinea pig double decker cage that you or Dad made out of wood. Did it have as many as 30 guinea pigs on it before a dog came in and slaughtered them? Did that episode put an end to the whole animal collection?
Seems to me there was a wounded squirrel that bit you. A couple of white rats. A nest of wild mice that Dad found in the coal bin and turned over to you. Any wounded birds? Snakes? Lizards? Were the rabbits your thing before they were turned over to me?
2. At what point did the basement room become your bedroom? Surely you did not share the space with all those critters. Was there ever any heat in that basement room? I remember you had to walk through the basement hallway past a cellar which at one time had homemade wine and/or homemade root beer except that most root beer bottles exploded their caps. Maybe there were home canned tomatoes and other veggies on the shelves there too. Next to the cellar room there was the remains of a once functional toilet room with a charming pull chain "water closet". Then there was a large laundry room with a workbench for Dad along the inside wall that you had to walk through to get to the door to your room or the outside door.
I'm running out of sittin' time with my legs for now. I could go on about your tin or lead soldiers you bombed with clothespins in the sandbox. Or wondering if there is any photo record of the several years of fireworks displays you put on from the narrow ledge by Kaufman's house...
