Disappearing places from the past

This post is not about our first home as a married couple. Our first summer was spent in a Love Carmella one bedroom apartment just around the corner from Glen's parents in Hawthorne, CA.

This post is about our second home as a married couple. We moved back to Provo to attend BYU at the end of our first summer. That hole in the ground is where we lived for over a year and where we brought home our first baby boy.

It was a bit of a shock to drive by while we were in Utah and realize that they had just demolished this place of so many good memories. Glen picked himself out a brick to keep as a souvenir.

Our former home wasn't the only house to go. This is where the house next door used to be and that pile of rubble in the background was the home of Hugh Nibley and his family.

Where the alien destroyer is standing was my garden plot. It was just a tiny square of land behind the garage but it overlooked the large family garden of the Nibleys and they inspired me to give a garden a try. While experiencing my first natural child birth that summer, I would go in my head to my garden and count the plants to help manage the pain. It sort of worked.

This is a picture of a picture that my daughter took and framed as a special gift for us. Dear Sister Swapp lived upstairs and rented out two apartments in the basement to girls. I lived there first with my friend Glenna. Then I became engaged to Glen and we convinced Sister Swapp to rent to us. Those were the good old days. Our monthly rent was $100 and included all utilities. From then on, she rented to couples.

She was so excited about baby Eric. She came out on that front porch to welcome us home from the hospital in our little dark blue VW bug. In the summer, all of the house plants (some very large) were moved out onto that porch. I loved sitting there and visiting with my elderly friend. Before baby, we were great temple going companions.

I was also Phyllis Nibley's visiting teacher and daughter, Martha's, YW leader. Hugh Nibley was such an interesting man. "Why buy new clothing? There is plenty of perfectly good clothing at the DI," he would say. I often watched him walk briskly by headed for campus while munching on a carrot.


We had three rooms and a large storage closet. We had an outside entrance just off the driveway by the porch. We entered into our combo kitchen and dining area which had a darling Hooiser cupboard like the one pictured above. The closet and living room opened through separate doors off the kitchen. The front basement window in the above picture was in our living room. There was another window in the living room on the north side. I loved seeing the light on in that window as I walked home from campus in the evening. It welcomed me home. Our bedroom door was on the west wall of the living room and the bathroom door was on the west wall of the bedroom. We could only hear the people in the back of the basement apartment from that bathroom. When Eric would cry, Glen would move his bassinet from the bedroom to the kitchen AND then close both doors. That would also make me cry.

We had to make some adjustments as the first couple. We dismantled the bunk bed and bought a king sized mattress at Hugh Nibley's favorite store. It filled the space but we still had walking room. There was an old fashioned dresser in the bedroom which later became a changing table for Eric.

I loved our little homey space. It took less than an hour to clean from top to bottom and it was our "home." I can't believe that it is really gone. I guess prime real estate right next to campus is pretty irresistible. The two houses on the corner to the south were empty and will probably be down by our next visit. It will be interesting to see what goes in. Time really does march on.