"The Summer Estate" Chapter Two - Well, Well, Well

Chapter Two

"Well, Well, Well"

The following summer Nana and Pop Pop hired a local man to construct a "Cottage" on the estate. I don't remember the mans first name, I don't think I ever heard it. My father always called him (phonetically spelled) BRUL-YOUN...that was a Pop Pop "version" of the word UBRIACONE which means drunkard in Italian.

The "Cottage" actually was a large garage with two windows and a side door ( which were not common at that time ) in addition to the full front door. It had a patio on the side which was covered by an extension of the roof. Nana actually did wonders decorating it inside. It was a forerunner to the Florida type homes of today. It had no interior walls as dividers, it was one large room making up several living area's. From the patio, walking into the side door on the right was the kitchen. It consisted of a hot plate and an ice box, wall shelves and a basin in a work counter. Along the large garage door was the dining area, a table and several chairs. Next to that was the living room area made up of a few chairs, bureau's and other storage cubicles. The bedrooms were along the back and side left walls. The folding cots that were as our beds were in this area. The cots, by the way were purchased at the Army and Navy store for $1.25 ea. We had six of then, just in case we had over night guests, which we did on many occasions.

This one room area actually consisted of 4 rooms and surprisingly enough there was plenty of space, oh yes, there was also a

port-a-potty enclosed in a sheet type curtain.

The cooking and dining was usually done outdoors, the inside "Kitchen" was only used on rainy days. The outdoor cooking was done on one of Pop Pops creations. He dug a shallow hole in the ground, with stacked cement blocks on three side, about 18 inches high and over this was a placed a wire metal shelf from an old refridgerator and that was our Bar B Que and it worked great. Oh, the source of fuel was all the old logs and limbs that Pop pop went looking for on all the vacant property near us. He actually made his own charcoal and it made the best fires. On Sundays he would even make the marcaroni on his outdor grill and it was always cooked to perfection....This entire cottage cost Pop Pop about $700.00 including the furnishings. Then Pop Pop had the entire property enclosed in a picket fence, not sure what that cost, but our estate was now secure. We did stay there prior to the Cottage, we slept in the car or on the cots out under the stars. It actually was a lot of fun. I failed to mention that Pop Pop also had electric installed in the Cottage as well as running water outside. The water was located under a large tree, by means of a well pump. We had to always keep a bucket of water near the pump to prime it. (even then we were ordered, "don't throw the water out"...and you thought it only applied to pasta)..You had to pour some of the water into the pump, then grasp the handle and start pumping very vigorously and voila, natural cold, sweet delicious tasting water was brought to the surface and boy was it great. We actually took several containers of water home every wekend to drink during the week. We were living the High Life in those days...

• Preview of coming attractions...
• 
  "The Bee's and I"

• "The Lodato's have landed"

"Them, Them"

"A hole in one"

• 
  ...plus many more

to be continued