Who is James David Huff ???

Mrs. Catherine Huff will, hereafter and ever more , be called my mother.  Any reference to my biological mother, will be referred to as Dorothy. 

As we left off, Mrs. Huff was fighting to keep me.  In as much as she was born in 1880 and was sixty four years old when I arrived on her doorstep, the courts declared her too old to adopt me.  However, God in His wisdom provided.  The courts awarded me as a ward (like that play on words) to Mrs. Huff for as long as she wanted to keep me.  Mrs. Cecilia Knickerbocker was the case worker for the Erie County Institution District and assigned to look in on "Aunt Kate" and her little boy.

We lived in a two story frame house on Brown Avenue in Erie, Pennsylvania.  We had a basement with an old coal furnace that we eventually converted to natural gas when Mom got to old to shovel coal and I was not yet old enough.  I remember playing in the coal bin, talk about getting dirty......  We had an old Maytag washer with a wringer on it.  Google that one.  Our hot water came from an open flame gas burner that heated a copper coil outside a thirty gallon tank.  Two walls were covered from floor to joists with shelves three feet deep and loaded with fruits and vegetables that Mom had "canned" during the harvest season.

The front porch had a large swing suspended from the roof and we spent a lot of time just sitting, swinging, talking to neighbors that would stop by.  Everyone in the neighborhood looked out for everyone else.  A special watchfulness over the old and the young.  I came to know first hand that "it takes a village, to raise a child".  In later years this fact would become a mixed blessing.  But, more about that in due time.

Walking in the front door you found yourself in a small entryway with a writing desk and telephone ahead of you.  To its side, passage to the kitchen.  To your left, stairs going to the second floor.Two steps to the first landing, turn right and fourteen steps to the second landing, right three steps to the hallway.  The first landing had an old Victrola (crank it up to play) and pre vinyl records that would shatter if you dropped one.

Turning right as you entered put you in our living room.  Big window looking out onto the street.  Sofa, chair, the usual with my favorite, A Zenith Super Hetrodyne Radio that got short wave broadcasts from around the world.  Ships at sea using Morse code.  Quito, Ecuador and the Voice of the Andes.  Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, The Great Gildersleeve, Amos and Andy, Marx, Burns,Winchell, and on and on with all the greatest of all time entertainment.  You used your ears and your imagination. 

Turning left was a dinning room that would seat ten at the table.  China Cabinet, Buffet, Wardrobe, Sewing Machine and a lot of room for a little boy to play.  Another left and you were in the kitchen.  My second favorite place.  Gas stove and oven, refrigerator, cupboards, drop leaf table and two chairs.  Momma was always cooking and I was always eating. 

Later we will go upstairs.

For now, I am going to go to sleep with some very good memories.

(cntd)