STRIPPING
WOODWORK AND HANGING WALLPAPER by LINDA LEE GREENE©
Columbus,
Ohio, USA, March 30, 2019…I was a born-photographer before I knew I was also an
artist and a writer. The instrument at the end of my grubby hands was my
parent’s kid-friendly Brownie camera. In what was termed “Fly Town” in my
family’s blue-collar days and has graduated to the current smart moniker of
“Harrison West” in Columbus, Ohio’s near Westside, I gave our Brownie camera a
workout, as did kids of most every other nearby household. One of my early
endeavors, taken in December, 1953, is the photo featured with this posting.
In terms of composition, the photo
leaves much to be desired, but its contents are what are so precious to me.
Pictured are my father Lee, my mother Roma, and my brother David, who was eight
and none too happy to stand still yet again while his big sister snapped another
picture. In my mother’s arms is the newest member of our family, my baby sister
Sherri. I was ten at the time, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was
our first weekend outing as a family since Sherri’s birth—our destination was
the Christmas gathering at my maternal grandparent’s farm in Peebles, Adams
County, Ohio. We would also spend part of the weekend with my dad’s family who
lived in Adams County, too.
Almost as dear as the people in the
image, is the story its background tells. When my parents bought our house at
507 West Second Avenue, all of that gorgeous woodwork was painted over, and not
merely in the area pictured, but throughout its first and second stories. My
mother, bless her heart, working alone, stripped every inch of paint off the
woodwork in that house, including three gas-burning fireplaces. She stripped
it, sanded it, and then stained and varnished it. (There were no water-based
paints, stains, or varnishes in those days.) It took her years to accomplish,
but she did it. And see that wallpaper on the walls? She hung it, all by
herself, while at the same time seeing to every other physical and spiritual
need of our family.
The Greatest Generation?! You bet! And I
have the photos and stories to prove it.
Multi-award
winning author Linda Lee Greene’s books are available worldwide in soft cover
and eBook formats on Amazon and other online booksellers.
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