Building a house

"I know they say you can’t go home again
I just had to come back one last time."

 ... the house that built me ...

 My brother and I have our handprints in the cement on the back patio.
My mother marked our height/growth on the kitchen door sill. 
We had a huge banana tree in the backyard, and mom's clothesline was stretched across the lawn.

"I bet you didn’t know under that live oak

My favorite dog is buried in the yard..."

"If I could just come in I swear I’ll leave
Won’t take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me."

 (Last day at this house that built me)

I have those memories. 

Lyrics are from the song "The House that Built Me" written by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin. 

Miranda Lambert recorded it, but I heard it first performed by Mary Hoffmann. 

 The street  with the house that built me.

The house is still there, all 1,150 sq. feet of it. 

Zillow records that it was valued at $650,000 in 2005. 

The house that built me... in Southern California.

My own glimpse

I am hooked on Laurie's blog titled Glimpses of South Pasadena - especially her categories of houses. Since I was born in Pasadena, I am always curious about my birthplace. I have wonderful memories of my grandparent's house there. It was the house where family always gathered, where holiday meals were eaten, where New Year's Eve was spent in anticipation of watching the Rose Parade. I remember walking with my brother, parents, and uncles to the parade route and watching it from a ladder we would carry to the route.

I think Gramma's house was in the Craftsman style. California Bungalows are common, but this house has the Craftsman interior characteristics. The house had a built in breakfast booth. It had a side entrance from the driveway that my grandparents used as the front door. These doors opened into the dining room. There was a real front door that entered the living room, but I never remember it ever being accessible. The garage was detached and behind the house. The driveway was two concrete paths with a strip of grass between them. I looked through old slides and found a photo of the house, circa 1957.


I hunted Google maps for a street view of the house as it is today. My heart burned in excitement to recognize it! I hope to see it again someday.



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