1504 Hemlock Midland, Texas

Written by Jan Aiken Ross

I remembered that I had fairly recently seen a photo of my home (under construction at the time of the photo), which brought back a flood of memories. The original email (below) went to my grandchildren, trying to give them a flavor of my earlier years.

Before going further I would like to add that I have lived away from Midland since my graduation in 1964. I now am living in North Texas in the Sherman/Denison area. When discussions start and people want to know where you grew up, I always tell them Midland, Texas. This always brings positive comments about how wonderful the people are in West Texas and it must have been a great place to grow up. And I concur completely. I wouldn’t trade the time and place in my life for anything.

So with that, maybe the musings below will be a sweet memory for our classmates.

This brings back such a wonderful set of memories. This is my home in Midland where I spent the majority of my school years – 1954-1964 at 1504 Hemlock, Midland, Texas. This photo must have been taken right before we moved in. The man on the right is unknown, but he is standing in what would have been our alley. The front door is on the far left, and on the far right was our carport. I remember that house so well; it was such a great place to call home. Look at the old Chevy pick up in front; could it have belonged to the unknown man??

So what do you guys think? Daddy was able to get a loan from the VA to pay for it, otherwise, we would have continued to rent. In those days, soon after WWII, money was still tight, wages were low, but by the time the 50’s began, it was a time of affluence and people going back to work after the soldiers returned home from war. Average income was $3210/year, gasoline was 18 cents a gallon, the price of a car was around $1500, and a great big hamburger was 35 cents. And we even bought a black and white television in 1959.

And people were much kinder then, and our entertainment was totally different than it is today. We skated on the sidewalks, walked on stilts, built forts out of found materials in the fields, played basketball on our driveway, flew kites, watched crop duster planes fly low across the street where fields were planted, played jacks, and tennis, and four-square. And we even had a huge baseball diamond in our back yard, using something to make the bases, but I can’t remember what that was. We also planted 2 trees (which is a must in Midland, because there aren’t any) and those became tree house perches for hours on end. Our clothes line was used to do pretend aerial circus acts, and we entertained ourselves all day long outside until Mother called us in for dinner. Just a little déjà vu for my most precious ones.