Been a long time for me but I still read the posts of my old friends. We have been very busy with the new house, garden and my husband's retirement. Lots of changes and our two huge Seattle families keep us quite busy.

I wanted to share this short story with you from a recent visit to the house I grew up in in Seattle.

Jeff Got Killed by a Car

The day started out by driving out to Alki Point, West Seattle, Washington to show our son where we went as children to have Fish and Chips on Sundays with our parents. When we were teenagers we would go to Alki for beach parties and bon fires. Today, we looked for Spuds which was a favorite of my husband and his parents. Spuds, was still there after all these years and the deep fried cod and chips were as delicious as they were more than 50 years ago.

We took a walk on the beach and then drove off to Montlake to drive by the house where I grew up. Of course all of the streets looked impossibly narrow and the trees had all grown huge but the street was familiar and I started to name all of the families that lived in the houses that now appeared to have shrunk in size. As we passed our old house, Michael our son, said that we should stop and take some photos. That sounded like a good idea and we noticed that there was a man and his son in the garage. We parked the car and I called to him to say that I grew up in the house and would he mind if I took some photos of the outside of the house?

The house is a three story brick typical Seattle home. The garage is at the street level with a finished basement; recreation (rec) room, bedroom and laundry room. The first floor is up a set of stairs with a kitchen, dining room, living room, a sitting room and bath and then the three bedrooms upstairs and another bath.

The owner of the home was very friendly when I explained that I had grown up in the house many years ago and he invited us in to see the house as it is today. Our family had moved into the house in 1942 and I moved out in 1958 when I got married and my parents sold it about 12 years later.

"Please come in" the man said, "There is something I want to show you, maybe you could tell me something about it" I could not imagine what he was talking about but of course I said that I would be happy to look at it and he brought me into the laundry room and showed me the inside of a small closet. There on the door was a penciled message written by a child perhaps me - of a little of our history in the house.

It said:

1. Blackie cat was came to this house to live with the Pinchev December 27, 1947 1947 Â 1948

2. Jeff dog came to live with us (PinchevÂs) December 8, 1948.

3. Jeff got killed by a car, April. 9th, 1949 Â sad day.

The owner of the house was stunned when I told him that Jeff was our three legged feisty terrier dog  he thought it was a child and did not want his children to find the message because they would be traumatized. They were relieved to know that it was our dog. How amazing that he left the message although he did not want the children to read it! He did say the children did find it on their own, but they also left it untouched as did all the previous owners.

Before we left the laundry room, I asked if the laundry shoot from the third floor was still in the corner? ÂThere it is he said pointing to the ceiling of the small cramped room. I told him and his son that we would tease our little sister by telling her that we would throw her down the laundry shoot if she kept acting like a brat! We never did but she believed that we would and my older sister and I still laugh at this. The little boy thought that this was a neat story.

He then invited us up to see the rest of the house and tell him where the changes were made. But, before we went up I remarked that the bar and lights that my dad had built in the basement were gone. The bar was made of glass bricks and was the talk of the neighborhood. This was where we would have parties or just hang out and it was very ritzy looking! He said that it was taken out a year ago and the room was refinished to be more comfortable for his teenager. His daughter was working on the computer and we mentioned that both my husband and I attended Garfield High School and she said that she did also. But for the next two years she will attend another school while the high school is being remodeled.

The men walked up the stairs and I was alone with the daughter and I asked her if she had the room in the front of the house  the one with the funny closet and she smiled and said that she did. I then asked her if she noticed that the full moon shined directly into the bedroom and across the beds. It was like sharing a secret  and she said that yes, the moon still shined into the room and lit it up almost like daylight. It was a magical moment of connecting one generation with another.

We went up the stairs from the basement and I explained how the kitchen had been changed and we went through the various rooms. The dinning room was full of furniture and I told them that the original crystal chandelier that hung there is now hanging in my dinning room in our new home. I glanced out the window that faced Ruth BlochÂs kitchen and remembered talking to her through the window and marveled how we learned to understand what was being said without being able to actually hear each other. I almost expected her to appear as she did so many years ago  looking into our house as she did her dishes. The rooms appeared so small and when I told them how many people had lived in the house they were amazed. At different times there were as many as seven people with various relatives moving in and out as they needed homes. There were five of us, a maid  she shared the basement with us and our parties  a cousin or two and my grandfather for a few years when he came to the United States after 24 years in South America.

As we passed the stairs to bedrooms, I could see my Aunt Sally standing there at the reception for my cousinÂs wedding and singing. She had an operatic voice and would burst forth at family gatherings and of course how much she had to drink would influence her voice and choice of songs. I noticed the closet at the bottom of the stairs and asked if they knew what a Fibber and MaGee closet was. They did not know  not old enough - but I told them they were on a radio show and when they would open their special closet everything would fall out! "That was our MaGee closet" I told them. It was so full of stuff that if you opened the door, everything would fall out. I suspect that had I opened it  the same thing would have happened today.

A different time and a different place.

My DadÂs beautiful back yard was a mere fraction of what I remembered and a total disaster. The camellias in the front of the house that we had planted were huge and the Lily of the Valleys that were on the side of the house were now completely encircling the house. The Lilly of the Valleys were my favorites and were planted in honor of my May birthday.

The owner asked me to write something in the closet before we left and I wrote:

"I came back to visit our old house and found a wonderful family living here. Wishing them the best in our old house."

We took some more photos, shook hands and then drove away.