Map Photos -- Childhood Home

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Frank and I were playing with Google maps and Live Search maps. I looked the home up that I lived in for thirteen years of my life.... from ages five to eighteen. The house is just a couple of blocks from where Frank's parents live.

The first picture below is one my parents took of our home and it doesn't scan well. I think that is a pecan tree pictured in front of the house. The pecan sap got on the car and awnings so Daddy cut it down and a magnolia tree was planted. A Japanese Magnolia was added to the front yard at one time. In later years Daddy got rid of the boxwood hedge. Awnings were added over the windows and a porch was built and an awning put over the porch. Daddy enclosed part of the carport and with the utility room it became a dining room. The washing machine (no clothes dryer back then) was moved to the kitchen. The house has three small bedrooms. My sister and I shared the corner room at the front of the house. My three brothers had the bedroom across the hall. Mama and Daddy had the bedroom next to my sister and me. The small bathroom was located across from Mama and Daddy's bedroom. Each bedroom had a very small closet and the hallway had a small linen closet and a small coat closet. Daddy's Army duffle bag hung there for our dirty clothes to be put into. The dogs also slept in this closet... no doors to any closet to begin with. Curtains were over the closet doors in the hallway. In later years vinyl accordion doors were installed. The living room was small... especially when we all sat down to watch tv. It became smaller when the tree was added at Christmas. The kitchen after Daddy built the dining room was big enough to hold a large chest freezer, refrigerator, washing machine, stove, utility cart and a step stool. Cabinets only lined one wall of the kitchen. Daddy added a shelf over the freezer that held dishes. The floors were black tile pattern... I'm sure some of you have seen that type of tiling. The dining room and kitchen were tiled with yellow and green tiles alternating. The kitchen walls were always painted yellow. The dining room and living room walls were paneled in later years. My sister and I got to pick the color our bedroom was to be painted one time and we chose periwinkle.

If you click on the picture you will see a bit more detail.



This is a bit scary to me... A street view from Google maps. I cropped it a bit.... just so you don't know the exact address... which has changed from when I lived there.

There was a tornado in 1994 that went through the backyard. I think the trees in the front yard were taken with the wind from the storm. Since my parents owned the home the carport has been completely enclosed. The awnings are gone and shutters have been put up. The two cement lanes for the driveway remain. We used to roller skate up and down those lanes. The road was gravel then, so we couldn't roller skate there. I never was any good at roller skating.

If you click on the picture you will see a bit more detail.



This picture is a Bird's Eye view from Live Search. Cropped again to protect the innocent :-) My old home is the third house from the corner with an arrow in front. Where the highway is used to be houses... the road is why my folks moved. There has been an addition to the back left corner of the house. I bet a new utility room was add. The cement pad my Daddy laid is still there. We used to set out there and pick the ticks off the dog... smash the ticks with a hammer and put them in an ashtray to be cremated :-) There used to be wisteria trees lining the left back portion of the fence. When they bloomed our swing set was moved up by the house... to help prevent bee stings. The tornado in 1994 took the pine trees from the back yard and the neighbors' pecan trees. The backyard was big enough we could play baseball. I used to be able to hop the fence to fetch the ball.... by my teen years I could knock the ball over the fence too. There were homes directly behind us and woods nearby to explore back then. We didn't live very far from the river and it is amazing one of us didn't drown when we snuck off to explore there.

If you click on the picture you will see a bit more detail.


We had fun exploring with Google and Live Search maps. We can understand how they get the Bird's Eye view but the Street View. Now someone had to be right outside the house to take those pictures... you think?