We lived at this house when I bought my first car

Growing up in Chilliwack.....1955

This small house is a really nice place...in the first subdivision in Chilliwack (1947)...originally built for war veterans...it offered them really low mortgages and when the house was paid for a lot of the interest was returned...that was a perk if one was lucky enough to survive that war....some of the houses were sold and people gave up that excellent deal for one reason or another....mum and dad bought this place in 1953......I was 15.....that's also the first year we had a television set......a 19' black and white RCA.....a large aerial was needed and soon..by 1956 there were big TV antennas on just about every house...some of my friends had jobs installing antennas......a great way to make a buck ....and they needed 16-18 year olds to run around on those roofs.... It was very competitive .... a kid earned his pay......probably about 60 cents an hour....I didn't do that.....but I did set pins at the bowling alley........hmm........ there is another story.......We lived at this house when I bought my first car (I was 16 years old ) ....a 1933 Chevy........kind of like Archie's car in the comics only with a top....Don Reimer, a great pal, had a 34 ford...and his dad was a painter.....a house painter....he painted Don's car for him and had blue paint left over...he made me a gift of painting my car too.....robins egg blue with black fenders....hey - it looked great...I have no pictures (nuts..) wow, did those heaps look good....my old seventy five dollar car looked like a hundred dollars...I had worked on the construction of the Little Mountain School....the summer between grade 11 and 12...(1954)... I earned about 240 dollars...that was my first real job...about 15 teachers and students worked on it....that was probably the best summer work I could hope to have .. ....I was also elected to be the gopher who collected the money and bought the snacks for afternoon coffee break...At the last of the job I can remember so clearly packing all that stuff back from the store (Little Mountain Market) and admiring my car that was parked along side the road.....I loved that old crate...it was great just to sit in it....once a week I would pick up the used oil at Vance's Service Station (right at little mountain)...the motor was a little sloppy...it used plenty of oil, but the price was right...That old car barely made it up big hill going to Cultus Lake but it never failed to either...many 10 cent pieces were collected to put gas in that can....the brakes were bad though..mechanical brakes...I was lucky to get through that stage without an accident ....I had it most way through grade 12....then I bought a 36 Plymouth from a guy named Bruce Jay, for 100 bucks... we brush painted it at Vance's garage......the paint was ten dollars ....I remember that sure seemed expensive for paint......it was.....five of us painted it one night...primer grey..with pink fender skirts....what a transformation..that old car had looked pretty beat....but it had very few dents etc........it painted up like unbelievable...the flat charcoal primer hid so much sin...it looked great....we were all babbling that night of what a terrific job we had done....
Today, when I was taking this picture...I could see someone in the kitchen window....She came out and was quite concerned about me photographing her house...The young lady relaxed when I told her I lived there over 50 tears ago..she seemed very interested in the history of the neighborhood...She said she loved the house and the neighborhood and had been there 3 years...I told her of backing in to the neighbor's car across the road...I put a small dint in his door....He was not mad about it, actually he was in a pretty good mood...apparently he had just won 50,000 dollars on the Irish Sweep stakes.......(A horse race in Ireland famous for its world wide lottery)...well, that house was 11,000 dollars in those days.......so at that rate (at 300,000 now)...he won like, 2 million bucks.......he let me slide on the door dent.....it was my lucky day too.




the only thing much different at that house is a gravel driveway.....