Chapter 20
444 MAIN STREET
The lot we bought was on the
southwest corner of Main and South Fifth Streets. It was a very level lot so I built without a basement. It
was a painted concrete-block house set on a concrete slab. We had a covered
concrete porch toward the intersection; a nice sized living room, a combination
dining room and kitchen with a corner-window sink, a laundry, tiled bathroom
and three bedrooms each eleven by thirteen feet in size.
This was to be our first
house with automatic heat. I had a contract with Ira Fasnacht to install a
forced warm-air oil-fired heat plant. As winter approached, he still did not
have the unit. I asked him where it was and he traced it to a warehouse in Hagerstown,
Maryland. I don't know why he could not get it shipped, but I volunteered to go
for it. I borrowed a pick-up truck from Howard Wolf and went to Hagerstown and
got the furnace. We couldn't install the asphalt floor tile without heat. We
moved in February of 1948.
444 Main St., Akron, PA
Mabel sold her house on New
Street after our parents had died. After Ada and I were settled in
"444", Mabel and I bought a lot from Lloyd Roland on Sixth Street
with the intention of dividing it. I was to build a small house for her on the
lower half and later I would use the other half to build a house for sale.
Until Mabel got possession
of her lot, I worked two months, February and March, for Luke Weidman
installing trim in Henry Blough's new house at South Tenth and High Streets.
From April to October, I
built for Mabel and then through the winter I built a small flat-roofed
concrete-block house on the other lot, just above Mabel's house. In March of
1949 I sold that house to John Kilhefner.
Again through March of 1949
I worked for Mr. Weidman; this time installing trim in the new house of R. J.
Hamilton III on the corner of Oak and High Streets.
One of the first days in
April, while I was working for Weidman, we had a prospect for a quick sale of
"444". Not caring to continue to work for someone else, I made a
quick sale to Mr. and Mrs. Edwin W. Rutt. We signed an agreement of sale on
April 4th, and were to give possession in two months, June 1st.
During the time we lived at
"444", Ada had much trouble with her nerves. She often felt that she
couldn't breathe. Eventually she was completely prostrated and the doctor sent
her to the Lancaster General Hospital. A Dr. Tinney, after many tests,
diagnosed her trouble as hyperventilation due to nervous tension. With that
assurance and instructions to control her breathing, she walked out of the
hospital without aid and continued to improve.
One night I had my second
kidney stone attack. Again Ada had to go to our neighbor, Harry Reitz, and call
a doctor. She got Dr. Wissler to come up and after a heavy shot I slept. The
next day I passed a stone.
At that time T. V. sets were
still scarce. Our neighbors, across the street, had a set and sometimes Jay and
Arvilla would go over to watch. After they came home they often found it hard
to go to sleep. I had yet to see T. V.; my first time was while passing a store
window in the city.