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DIY and the Linville Street House
"Do-it-yourself" thrived in the Kingsport Cobb household, an internalized trait I retain to this day (much to Jan's chagrin). Dad was much more skilled at it than I will ever be, or aspire to be.
He did it out of necessity. There were lots of mouth to feed and educate. And it was important to Mom to live in a nice house on a nice street.
He built the pool when I was sixteen. I mean BUILT. None of this writing a check and waiting for a contractor to deliver a completed product. Even the filter system was custom fabricated.
I spent my sixteenth summer ('58) hauling large industrial jacks borrowed from Eastman to the house for use in building forms for the pool walls. The project is where I learned my trailer backing skills; I must've made 20 trips to Eastman for jacks, and the same number to return them after the concrete was poured. I stayed busy loading, unloading, assembling and bracing forms, helping pour pool walls, and disassembling the mess. All this was in addition to my day job -- manual laborer for a local road construction firm that was pouring concrete streets in our area for the city of Kingsport (some of which were still dirt prior to my sixteenth summer).
This and other outdoor jobs in my younger days are likely the genesis of my current skin challenges, as we shunned use of sunscreens and hats as totally not cool. It also helped build an Adonis-like body (I also have some beach-front land in Florida ...).
Here's a view of the house from the back side of the pool:
The pool was a great place for kids and for entertaining. Mom's sewing machine was behind the windows in the lower left corner of the house overlooking the pool so she could lifeguard while she sewed and enjoyed her "tea". Katherine's 1968 wedding took place on the patio to the left of the picture.
Here's the house as it looked from the street in 1973:
You wouldn't recognize it as the same house Mom & Dad bought in 1947.
1414 Linville Street in 1947, with Bill in the front yard
The original house had a large country porch, wood siding, a dormer, and old fashioned windows widely spaced across the front of the house (it was originally built in the 30's). Dad remodeled it all, added the pool, and added the badminton court. You had to be proud of what he accomplished.
But the best memory is the street itself.
Linville Street is beautiful and elm lined. I carried a morning paper route for several teenage years, and was usually on the street by 5:30 (AM, not PM Jan). One of my great memories is of the days when we had new snow. Imagine this street and its trees filled with 6" of fresh snow -- no tire tracks or footprints -- and street lights illuminating the scene every half block or so. Absolutely take-your-breath-away beautiful.
I imagine Sarah's memories of snowy mornings are similar, as she also delivered morning papers.
The elm trees have been hit by elm blight, so it is not as beautiful as it was in '73; however the memories remain (at least this week J).