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Chuck Hinman # 069: It's Just Me Again: BOARDING HOUSES Short story: A Chuck Hinman short story. The next previous Chuck Hinman story: My First Car Reader comments to CM are appreciated, as are emails directly to Mr. Hinman at: charles.hinman @sbcglobal.netCM By Chuck Hinman (Contact the author at: charles.hinman @sbcglobal.net) Copyright Chuck Hinman; reprinted with author's permission Boarding Houses One month after I graduated from Liberty (Nebraska) high school, my parents and I loaded my clothes in the family car and headed for Peru, Nebraska where I was going to go to college. I was ready to begin college education to equip me for my life's work, whatever that would be. I hadn't settled on a career but I was pretty sure it would NOT be farming. Dad and Mom apparently concurred. That's not to say I wanted to become a teacher. Peru State Teacher's College was the cheapest place to go to college, and it was near home. It was 1939 and I was 17 years old. We had no idea where I was going to live while I went to college. Young men had been going to college at Peru for years so we went on blind faith that there must be facilities where a young man could stay such as in a private home for a monthly charge. When we arrived at Peru and started driving around the campus, it became obvious that many people were in the business of renting out rooms in their homes. After surveying the area we checked out a two-story house a few blocks north of the campus advertising "board and room" for boys. It was known as "Christian House." Mom and Pop Christian had spent a lifetime providing a home away from home for boys like myself going to college. They could provide room and board for ten boys. We soon struck a deal and I met my roommate, John somebody from western Nebraska. He was a Senior and on the football team. Before the day was over, my roommate changed to Kenneth Hart who was from home. He had graduated from Peru earlier, had started his teaching career and was back for gradate work. We knew Kenneth and his folks from Liberty. The Christians apparently decided Kenneth and I were a better match than John and I. We agreed. The reason I am writing about this time in my life is to spotlight a way of life that has come and gone; that being a business where people opened their homes and rented a bedroom and in some cases provided food for a price. If they just provided a room, it was called a rooming house and if food was involved, it was called a boarding house. After graduating from college and beginning a career with Montgomery Ward Company, I moved about quite a bit. My first job with Wards was in Monroe, Louisiana. In Monroe, I lived in a nice rooming house that had two other roomers. One was a young man who managed a shoe store. The other was a military man who ran a recruiting office. I ate most of my meals across the street from where I lived in a Toddle House restaurant, a popular chain restaurant of the day (1948). Next I was transferred with Wards to Helena, Arkansas where I had a room with a Jewish couple in a very fine two-story brick home. I never understood why they would rent out a room in their luxuriously furnished home. They certainly didn't need the income. The Kroh's didn't provide meals, just a room but I soon found that Helena had several very good boarding houses that served noon and evening meals. There were 20-25 people at the table. Food was served family style. I was introduced to some wonderful cuisine which I had never tasted in Nebraska, such as okra, squash, hushpuppies, fried catfish and other seafood, black-eyed peas, etc. I ate grits till they came out my nose and ears! Transferring to Fayetteville, Arkansas and finally Bartlesville, I stayed in rooming houses but missed the wonderful boarding houses of the south. When I arrived in Bartlesville where I have spent the last 55 years, I rented a bedroom from John and Sally Hitchcock. They were the father and mother-in-law of Ludie Hitchcock, one of the twins living here at Tallgrass Estates. John was a custodian in the Bartlesville school system. When I first lived with them, we lived at 521 E. 9th Street near Central High School. I think it is unique that the Hitchcock's decided to move to 422 Choctaw and I moved with them. It was while living with the Hitchcock's on Choctaw that I met and married my wife, Connie Pickett. She lived in a rooming house next door. She fell in love with my 1949 yellow Chevy convertible and I came with the car! After a short courtship, we were married and had our own home for fifty years. Connie developed Alzheimer's Disease and died and I returned to boarding house living after a 50 year hiatus. I must say that my present boarding house, Tallgrass Estates is a step up from my first boarding house, Christian House in Peru Nebraska. Tallgrass is a multi-million dollar complex on the outskirts of Bartlesville. It has 113 apartments and 140 residents at the last count. I have a beautifully appointed one bedroom apartment and receive three meals a day. At breakfast a few minutes ago, I started out with tomato juice, then grapefruit sections, followed by warm oatmeal served with brown sugar, honey and raisins. For the main course, I had two egg, sausage links and blueberry pancakes with warm maple syrup. Well, that's about enough for boarding-rooming houses. I've come a long way, "baby" in the matter of my search for a place to call my home. A well known song in the "Golden Book of Songs" has as part of its lyrics, "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." I agree! I have had a number of homes, some of them, other people's homes. My homes have gone from one member to 140 members. I can hardly wait for my next home, my heavenly home! It's touted as several steps up from Tallgrass Estates, songwriters even referring to it as a "Mansion Over the Hilltop"! I hope to see you there! Chuck Hinman, former Nebraska farm boy, spent his working days with Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and Houston, Texas. He lives at Tallgrass Estates in Bartlesville where he keeps busy writing his memories. His hobbies are writing, playing the organ, and playing bridge. This story was posted on 2009-01-26 07:14:36
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Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Chuck Hinman - Reminiscences:
Chuck Hinman # 019: It's Just Me Again : 019 : MY FIRST CAR Chuck Hinman: MERRY CHRISTMAS, MOM Chuck Hinman: SNOW ICE CREAM Chuck Hinman: CAREGIVING 101 Chuck Hinman: A MAN NAMED BOB Chuck Hinman #160: Pew, I smell gasoline! View even more articles in topic Chuck Hinman - Reminiscences |
 
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