Congress Creek Road Memories

"The Old House," Where Mom, Dad, Roger & Me lived from 1960 - 1966.

Mom & Me 1961 Grandma & Me Grandma Roger & Me & Groundhog

We used to live in what we called "The Old House" until I went into 1st grade in 1966. The dinning room was were everyone hung out. I guess we called it the dinning room 'cause it had the dinner table where we ate, but there was also a couch there as well as arm chairs, the fridge, the TV set and the coal stove. It was the back of the house set right against the side of the hill, to the left facing the hill was the worlds smallest kitchen. Just room for a stove and sink to heat water after it was carried in from the hand crank pump outdoors. My bedroom was between the kitchen/dinning room & the living room that was the front side of the house. Then two bedrooms to the left of that.

Ben Wesley Wilcoxen Sr. Maudie Wilcoxen Mary Barber
10/16/1909 - 03/31/1982 10/06/1911 - 06/01/1991 1883 - 1982

They did their best to raise me right and keep clothes on my back. I wish I could have appreciated them more when they were alive. I was your average teenager in that I never really heard or paid attention to my Dad. He was wiser than he seemed to me during those times. He always said, "One of these days..." I guess I'm living in "One of these days"

Outside the front porch was where we had a porch swing and would watch the rain fall on a summer evening after shoppping the old A&P store. The worst thing was the outhouse was on the other side of the creek until I was about 5 or 6. I hated the idea because eveyone kept reminding me to be careful 'cause copperheads and cottonmouths are in the creeks. First phobia I ever had was falling in the creek on the way to take a crap and get bitten by a poisonous snake! We had two apple trees in front that I always tried climbing. One was winter appples the other summer apples. We had a fish'n pond on top the hill and Grandma's house was the next house down the road (still Mom & Dad's land), which was a dirt until around 74'. I hated it when the county paved the road, pavement is hot when the summer sun bakes it good...but summer dirt road when baked by the sun is warm and feels good when squeezed between your toes. It was cool reading Two Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid & Kid Colt comic books and seeing my Grandpa's harness & tackle equipment laying around.

As John Lenon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

Facts are I was born in El Paso, Texas but the Truth is I was raised in Belpre, Ohio 1960-1979