This is the house that dad grew up it. 125 S. 2nd Street! The window on the left is where a garage used to be. Grandpa Bean (Harold) changed it to at living room while dad was growing up. The current owner is very nice, I found out after he caught me petting his dog in the middle of the street.
This is the field where dad did so well playing baseball. This is the field where he played Babe Ruth . The fields where he played little league were nowhere to be found. The field has since been renamed Red Delpapa Memorial Park. You can't see but the bleachers and dugouts are purple!
This is where dad went to elementary school. It is simply called Tooele School. The middle school and high school he attended were bore torn down and rebuilt. This school is, oddly enough, being turned into condominiums. 
The Ritz Theatre is where dad watched movies when he was growing up. It's right in the middle of "downtown Tooele." The lady in the botth did not like me taking pictures of her so she promptly left after my first picture. I hope this gives some idea of dad's earlier life. Unfortunately many of the buildings dad grew up around have been changed, torn down, or modernized. But these should give you some idea of dad's childhood. We all love you dad! These are just a few of the pics I took in my galavant around Tooele so if anyone wants the others let me know!
I LOVE IT! More MORE more MORE! Dad, I would love to hear some of your memories. Knowing that times have changed so much- I can't imagine just letting Brooke go to the movies, but i but that you went w/ your friedns alone. What movies do you remember going to? Did you share a room w/ Uncle Bill or did you hav your own. Is this the home where grandma and grandpa lived before moving to W. Jordan? I have really vague memories of a house that I used to make cookies in w/ grandma bean- different then the home we all remember them in. I can't wait to hear more stories.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome idea!!!!!! Mike, you are the coolest!!!!! I agree with Jen. I would love to hear some of dad's memories.
ReplyDeleteI want Mom to tell the same stories. I haven't heard much about her childhood either. I'd love pictures as well.
ReplyDeleteHere Here! Then Mike and Brian need to go find pictures of our homes when we were growing up- mom and dad's first home in Pleasant Grove, the home in American Fork- Price!
ReplyDeleteWhen I get more time, I'd love to. I love being so close to family history. . . even if I never really see it. Give us the address and I/we'd love to.
ReplyDeleteSo, are we ever going to hear from our parents? Or are they just going to leave us hanging?
ReplyDeleteOkay now that we are back from our trip to Virginia, I have some time that I can catch up on the blog. The house is where I grew up. There used to be two great big weeping willow trees in the yard on on the left of the drive way and one where you can just barely see the other tree. They were really trash trees and infact had a root system that was like none other. In fact the roots of the tree on the right got into our sewer line. My dad was not one to spend money to have someone else fix something, so we dug down to the sewer line from the house to the road about 6 feet deep and he put a new section of sewer line in. He had to have someone dig up the road, but we did the rest. I am not sure how old I was, so I may not have helped. Another thing about the house is that it was built without a basement. Well, my dad wanted a basement so we dug the basement of the house out, by hand. We got a big conveyor belt and somehow got it down under the house (maybe we busted the foundation out and then proceeded to shovel the dirt onto the conveyor belt and up to the surface where we loaded and took it somewhere, but I cannot remember where. Dad had to build supports for the floor and maybe even additional foundation walls. Anyway that was another one of his projects. He never had anyone do something that he could do himself. You see the window on the left of the houst and the fireplace chimney. Yup, he did that too. Converted the garage into a living room with a fireplace. Laid the block for the chimney as well. I forgot to have mike take a picture of our garage that we moved out in the back yard. I cannot remember the story on it, but he had a graged moved into the back yard from an alley way that dad negotiated a right of way on. That is how we got into the yard and where we parked our cars. I spent many an hour painting that house.
ReplyDeleteI realized that I wrote to much and it would not post, so I am breaking it up in pieces.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have beautiful red climbing roses in front as well. We had only two bedrooms in the house until dad converted the garage and then he build an extra bedroom on the back. Until then Bill and I shared a room. We both had stuffed animals we called teddy and elephant. I cannot remember which one was mine but we used to play together with them when we went to bed. That must have been in my early childhood, because I cannot see Bill playing with stuffed animals at a very old age and he is 4 years older than me. I can remember having bunk beds because my dad fell off them once. For some reason, he was sleeping in our room and he was on the top bunk. Something happend that he had to get out of bed fast and he forgat that he was on the top bunk and when he got out of bed he fell to the floor. Seems funny now, but not at the time. In the old days homes of our quality and size did not have showers and in fact, I am not sure that any homes had showers, but dad wanted to have a shower, so yup he put a shower in. The house used to heated by a coal furnace down stairs. There you go, we must have had somthing dug out downstair to house the furnace before digging the rest of it out. Any wasy in the hall wasy was a hole in the floor for the heat to come up through and you had to go around the metal grate on it our you would burn your feet. Latter dad put in a gas furnace. Can remember when but in my early childhood. Our kitchen had red and white tile squared and the washer and dryer was in the kitchen. We did not have wash and wear clothing back then so mom would have an ironing bag with all the clothes that had to be ironed and we did not have steam irons, so they all had to be "sprinkled". Yes there were little bottles that you would sprinkle water on your clothes with it. I cannot remember, but I think that she may have sprinkled them before they went into the back, but then again that was a long time ago. She did all of the ironing for the family. In fact she pretty well did everything for the family including all of the wash and making all of the beds including picking up our dirty laundry. The rail road ties that make up the retaining wall on the left replaced I believe an old block fence. The retaining wall on the right, however, used to be made up of rocks stacked on top of each other about 2 to 3 feet high. I canno tell, but it appears they have been replaced. Good times in that old house.
I spent many a day on the baseball field. It really was a big thing for me. You all know about playing WBBA baseball and winning the world series for WBBA, NOT LITTLE LEAGUE, WBBA. After that (12 years old) I went on to play Babe Ruth league and this is the field that we played on. The outfiled fence has been replaced. We had a solid wooden fence and if Mike would have taken a picture of left field, you could have seen where I hit my one and only home run. I pitched and played third base. I thought that I was a pretty good pitcher, but certainly not the best. My dad was even president of the league on year. He had to make up all of the schedules, get the umpires, etc. He was out of his comfort zone, but he was certainly supportive. My final year of playing babe ruth league I was on the all star team. Funny thing, though, I did not pitch nor play third base. The coach made me into a catcher. I had not caught at all in my time playing baseball, but he new that I had a good and accruate arm and could throug well to second base. I have to admit that I really did enjoy catching. We got to play on the professional field in Salt Lake City for the state championship and won. We got to represent the state at the district tournament in Douglas, Arizona. We did not do well there and lost our first two games, but it was fun anyway. We got to go into Mexico since Douglas was close to the boarder. The family went with me incuding Larry. I thing that I may have pictures of that. I had a chance to play ball for the high school but turned the coach down. I really did not like him. He was kind of a jerk and so I opted to go into track and through the shot put and discus.
ReplyDeleteNot much to say about the old elementary School. I can remember my first grade teach, however, Mrs. Fleenor. I can also remember going to kindergarten and taking naps after milk and crackers, I think. I can remember them teaching us square dancing and having to perform out on the playgrounds for our families. I can remember having a crush on a girl by the name of Susan Caldwell, her father was the band teacher at the high school. She had a long pony tail and I mus have been all of the age of 10 or 11. I can remember one of the most embarassing moment of my young life in playing kickball. It was my turn and when I went to kick it, I missed, fell on my butt and knocked the wind out of me. I could play baseball, but could not kick a ball. What's that all about. I can rmember getting reprimanded by the Principal Mr. Jackson in the cafeteria. Cannot remember what I had done, but I can tell you that everyone was afraid of Mr. Jackson and you did not want to cross him. All in all my elementary school days were uneventfull.
ReplyDeleteAh, th old theater. I cannot remember if it was call the Ritz back then or not and I cannot remember any of the movies. I do not remember when I started going to the movies, but I can remember that the back left hand corner of the theater was where the boys and girls went to make out. It was dark and secluded. Funny, I never made it to that corner. Must have found somewhere better to make out. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI am sure that the last several posts have created questions in all of your minds. I will be happy to answer them through the blog our personally. I love you all so much and thanks Mike. This was fun. Maybe we can find some other pictures to put on. And thanks Jen for the additional pictures.
I loved it all! Thanks, dad. I had a lot of questions while reading, but I can't remember them. Seeing as how I am in class now (and should be listenning) i suppose I can't go back and re-read. Oh yes, I remember one. I was wondering how much of your personality charactaristics you think you inherited from your parents and which ones you have natrually. I see similarities between my parents and myself, and I'd like to know which of those, if any, I can trace back to grandparents.
ReplyDelete