Wow that listing makes me unreasonably sad. That house is my whole childhood, and all that people my age (50's) are dealing with at this stage. Ugh.
Our parents the baby boomers -I am an early 50 - they came home from WW2, Korea, and Vietnam, and settled into the American dream, and this house is what that looked like for the middle class. This mom and dad thought this was such a dream come true. Moved in right after marriage. They felt so lucky they got the lot on the cul-de-sac and had this built from the development builder who had 10-12 choices of homes and carpets, tiles, paints, shrubs, roofs basement entries to choose from. Everything was new and exciting then. All their neighbors got married around the same time, all of each family's 2-5 children were the same ages and wore the same exact clothing. They all smiled and waved from their yards. Everyone had a relatively new car, because they were affordable.
Life felt different then for children. We had to get smallpox vaccines, and children a bit older than I was got polio vaccines...delivered at school on a sugar cube I am told. Our spines were checked for straightness at school by a stern doctor. I remember him putting one hand on my hips and walking his fingers down my spine, then giving me a smack on the "tush" when he was done.
We had nuclear bomb drills where all the tiny pigtailed girls and rowdy bows had to be calm, sit on the floor in the hall all lined up hip to hip and put our head between our knees until the siren rang. Why were we not terrified at the thought of the words Nuclear. Bomb. Eh...we were just lined up in the hall doing as told.
Buuuut I digress...all the women in that neighborhood got pregnant, had babies, and raised us at the same time. We grew up, dated and went to dances together. Several of us died in car crashes after "keggers" ...and the community mourned the loss together.we graduated high school, then out siblings, then any late in life kids...went to college, a few came back, a good many said they couldnt wait to get away from this lousy town. We visited mom and dad with laundry in college, then for meals when we were young and dating and working. We shared our exciting stories, knowing that they had certainly never lived such a fun and sexy and exciting life as ours. (Nope, they just had the 60's-70's and Woodstock era ha!) We married and visited less. Then only on holidays. Really, only every other holiday...the in laws get half.
It came as a shock when mom said she was ill. Leukemia. She was gone a few months later. Dad died within the week. They were the only ones who had ever owned that home, and filled it with dreams and love and 50 Christmases. Pain and secrets and grief and joy and pride and fear.
My brother and sisters and I learned so much packing up the house to sell. Mom had lost a little boy with Down's syndrome before she had me. Her heart was so broken. Dad had prostate cancer. He didnt tell mom. They saved every baby tooth. Every prize we won. That house was so full of love, it's a wonder anything else even fit.