Many many years ago (when I was but a lad) our farm house (the Gilbert

Mixson homestead) was quite different than it is today. (As a family,

we (Mama, Daddy, brother Wayne and myself) lived with Grandma Onnie

in the old house. Grandma and Daddy passed in 1965; Mama in 1982. Brother

Wayne and I stil own the old property.

Most of what is the kitchen and bathroom today was, way back then, a screened 

in  porch. 

What is now the back bedroom was the dining room. Directly behind that dining

room was an elongated (east to west) room that was the kitchen. Next to it, 

behind what is now the bathroom was another room used for storage. I remember

that storage room well. Daddy used dynamite when drilling wells and clearing

stumps out of pasture areas. I remember cases of dynamite being stored

there. God takes care of fools, drunks and little kids. I'm still alive...

classify me! Additionally when I was old enough to begin my "engineering"

work I had a work bench in that room. I have two memories of that

work. One, I dang near killed myself when I got across two wires in

an old radio carrying, probably, 250 to 300 volts (whatever B+ voltage

was for vacuum tube radios of the time). Somehow, I got myself

across two wires with that voltage, one in each hand. Had I not stumbled

backwards and broken away I would have met my demise in my early

teens. I still have the burn scars on my fingers to demonstrate my

folly. Secondly, I built my first radio transmitter there. Russia's

Sputnik went "weeeeeeeee". My transmitter went "weeeeeeeee". I drove

the car to see how far I could pick up the transmission...all the way

to the bottom of the hill. Maybe 100 yards? It worked!

However, I digress.

The kitchen room was a bit curious. As one went through it, the old

wood stove was first on the right. There was a kerosene stove to the

left. The "eating table" was on the left in a back corner. Straight

through a door exited to the back. A door but no steps. And, floor

level was 4-5 feet above ground level. We exited there by climbing

over a railing and dropping to the ground. Wonder how they got a CO! 8*)

I don't know when it was done but those two rooms...the kitchen and the

storage room...were torn down. What was the dining room became the

current back bedroom; the porch was enclosed and became the kitchen.

The "bathroom" was a two holer a bit west of where the banana plants are

now in the SW corner of the back yard.  (There were little bugs that would

bore into the wooden toilet bench (earwigs I'm told. Little suckers would 

bite you on the butt on occasion! A bit of excitement while sitting!)

For some reason all the wood from those two rooms that were torn

down was saved. I've been sitting on a lot of it for many many years.

So, that wood is likely well over a hundred years old.

Hard to say as I don't know for sure when the house was built. Grandma

Onnie and Grandpa Gilbert were married in 1902. Likely the house was

built at the time of their marriage.

More changes: Way back when (again, when I was but a lad) the front door

entered into a hallway. There were three doors off that hallway. One to 

the right went into the living room. One to the left went into the front 

bedroom. Another went straight through onto the back porch from which 

one could go into the center bedroom, the dining room in the back, the

kitchen behind it or the above mentioned storage room.

Sometime during my teen years I got the wild idea to take down the wall

which formed the hallway opening up that whole area as what is now

the living room. I guess part of the impetus to do that was that we had

a lot of sheets of sheetrock that had been sitting around for years.

Well, at the time, I had no concept of what "structural walls" were.

As I've said, God takes care of fools, drunks and little kids. I took

the wall out; the house didn't fall down. Thank you, God.

Said sheetrock had been leaning up against the wall behind the bench

that was the seat for brother Wayne and myself at the "eating" table.

My idea was to eliminate the hallway and use that sheetrock to cover the

living room walls. That's what's there today.

When the hallway was there, as one entered the front door, there

was a telephone on the wall to the right. One of the old crank jobs; much

bigger than a breadbox. ;-)

I have no idea as to when that 'phone was a working unit. I never ever saw

any lines in the area. I also have no idea what happened to that 'phone

(for which I can kick myself many times over).

The current layout of the kitchen and bathroom was done sometime

in the late '70's or around 1980 (I think).



James Mixson, December 2010