Friday, January 1, 2021

Happy Birthday! Carlos "ole"-man! 74! (Part 1 of 2)

Oh! “If” it ain’t-broke…!?

 

Golden-sun glowed a warm-comfort embracing the little American-bungalow situated on a-street in what had been a farm-field until a decade after the end of World War II when the U.S.-population exploded with “baby-boomers” bringing demand for housing to a crescendo; thirty of the thirty-five total dwellings in the horseshoe shaped subdivision, consisting of parallel two-lane thoroughfares, repeated their interior-layout of room-design for each of the-houses making the buildings compatible in a fairly narrow cost-range; every-third front-elevation added a-“sense” of-variety to an obfuscated wave-of-monotony. Such familiar pattern-fashion offered an easy-construction for the carpenters absent any necessity for possible-“challenges” implied in building something-different. Five of the domiciles strewn among the-“peon”-habitats, two sitting in the ample shade of a copse-of-woods on the southwest-corner of the layout and three overlooking a four-acre lake, proudly displayed “tasteful”-upgrades like a formal dining-room, third bedroom, additional ½-bath, full-basement and 2-car attached garage; these impressive-“villas” stood apart from the “hoi-polloi” shanties of the “common-folk”, and belonged to the “elite”-owner of the construction-company, his two-sons, the local-banker and the town’s car-dealer. Hmm!

No concrete-curbs or sidewalks graced the yards where they joined the narrow-streets constructed of a crushed-rock compacted-base liberally sprayed with petroleum-oil and over-layed with a coat of chipped-gravel which, when compressed by heavy traffic-volume, created a firm-base serving quite adequately as a serviceable roadbed. Of course, the-“elite” residences sported both curbs and sidewalks; nothing too-good for the high and mighty! Reckon-so! Hmm?

Population of the little-village ranged to-4,800, or-so! The varied citizenry shared some white-collar but predominately blue-collar jobs; the-people were generally-industrious, sported meticulous-yards, well-maintained vehicles, mostly, one per-family unit and kids attended either the local-public school or the parochial Catholic elementary educational-facility. Boys played league-baseball while girls joined Brownies, Home-economics classes in-school and learned to clean, cook and sew from Mom at-home. One full-time policeman kept law and order in a mostly peaceful, uneventful town supporting two major denominations and several fringe upstarts.

 

(Part 2 of 2 tomorrow)

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