My mom and dad purchased the house at 500 N. Edgeworth in January of 1950 and made it our new home.
500 N. Edgeworth sounds cool. It sounds better than 430 N. Edgeworth and more distinguished than 500 S. Edgeworth. It also sounds way cooler that 500 N. Minerva. Who would want to live on Minerva? (Oh crap, my friend Mitch did. Wasn’t his fault though. He was only three when his family moved in.)
Kenwood and University sound too pretentious.
Dorchester too dorky.
Farnum too agricultural.
(These were all other streets in the new neighborhood.)
Edgeworth is just right and 500 is waaaaaay cooooool.
When my dad told his dad that he paid $9,990.00 for this new house, my grandfather’s response was very succinct.
“Oh my God, Tony. You’ll never pay for it.”
This came from a man who didn’t trust the banks after the depression so he kept all of his cash in jars in his basement. He’s the same man who once traded a car for five chickens. Give a man a car and he may drive for a day. Give a man some chickens to mess around with his horny rooster, and he’ll have chickens and eggs to eat for the for the rest of his life.
The deciding factor in this trade was the car didn’t run and “Pa Tebo”, as my dad referred to his dad, didn’t have money to buy gas. The chickens would provide for his family, while the car just sat and didn’t provide any value at all.
The monthly payment on the house was $65.00. I’m not sure if that included the taxes and insurance, but it was a pretty penny no matter what it included.
This new house, like all the others in this post war neighborhood, was a two bedroom home, with a single bath, living room and kitchen. It sat on a 50 by 125 foot lot. Both the basement and second story were unfinished. The street was unpaved and became a mud bog whenever it rained. The mud was so bad that the men had to park a couple of blocks away from their homes and walk the rest of the way. Fathers worked and mothers stayed home.
The new houses didn’t come with all of the bells and whistles. Shortly after moving in mom and dad started to fix up the house to make it their home. They bought a TV, built a garage, paved the driveway, added some furniture so that I could have a bed and my about to be born sister, Sharron, could have my crib, and had a fence installed to secure the backyard.
Fencing in the backyard became a partnership between neighbors. The Presteds to our north and Ruffs to our south shared the expense of the fence installation on their respective sides of the adjoining backyards. Whoever lived behind us to our west opted out of the shared fence payment. (My dad paid for the entire 50 feet expense on his own so I would be safe.) I believe that they opted out for two reasons. 1. They didn’t have any children to corral like the Presteds, Ruffs and Tebos. 2. They lived on Minerva.
The new list of monthly payments looked something like this:
Mortgage $65.00
Garage $15.00
Fence $10.00
TV $10.00
Additional furniture $10.00
Driveway $10.00
Car payment $43.00
Life Insurance on Tony $10.00
Life Insurance on Robbie $1.20
Life Insurance on Sharron unknown
Electricity, telephone , coal (yes they heated with coal) food, clothes, miscellaneous = plus, plus, plus
Before dad knew what happened, their monthly bills exceeded their monthly income.
What’s a guy to do? Get a second job. And that’s what my dad did. He drove a pop truck all day for Faygo Beverages, came home for a quick dinner and a nap, and then worked the third shift at Budd Wheel. After his shift at Budd Wheel, he came home, took a shower, ate breakfast, and headed back our to his delivery route at Faygo.
He did that for about eight months so that we could pay off all of the bells and whistles. I expect that he bought a few more and paid them off as well.
And after that, he listened less to quick talking salespeople who offered up wonders for only $10.00 a month.