Our house was a big old brick house.  And this lilac bush was on the southeast corner of the house. 

When they were in full bloom, Mom would go out there and cut off a big bouquet.  And then she had this green glass vase that was tapered out a little bit at the top. I suppose it was ten to twelve inches high.

She set them in that middle room on the big dining room table that had ends that pulled out on both ends if you had a group. Those lilacs just scented up the whole house! 

The house itself was a big brick house.  These first two rooms in the downstairs had -- I believe they were right at nine feet, the ceilings.  And then you went on into the next room.  This house had been built in two stages, I think.

In the next room the ceilings were about twelve feet, at least a couple of feet higher than the first two rooms. That made an L-shape out of it.

When you went from the third downstairs room to the north end, there was, like, a very nice entrance.  It was never used.  Evidently, the builder had anticipated putting the driveway clear around the house.

And for any formal things you would use that front entrance.  It also had a stairway that went up to a landing and then up to another landing up at the top. There was two rooms way up there.  And then the first part of the house that was built -- I kind of get my stories crossed on how they are put together.

You went up another stairway to the two bedrooms up there.  It was a nice, big house, all brick. Those walls, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they weren't sixteen inches thick. And the bricks were fired right there on the farm.

There was a front field there that faced east.  We called it the front field.  And it was right along Route 68, I don't know -- three or four hundred yards out from the house to the road.

To the south a little bit I used to plow up brick bats where they had burned the bricks.  They made them out of the local clay. 

Sometimes they would get over fired and turn black.  Of course they pitched them out.  They didn't use them.  Maybe they hauled them away.

Some got left around there.  Dad and I always figured they fired the things right there.  It was a well built house.

The upstairs rooms had two windows apiece.  Well, I guess the downstairs did too. 

Then there was the L-shape that Grandad built a porch in there with a railing around it with concrete blocks of some kind, ornate concrete blocks. 

We enjoyed that.  It was cool.  I remember we had a porch swing hung on chains out there.  I remember as a kid getting on that swing and swinging back and hitting the bricks. 

Kids always have to overdo everything.  I was like all other kids and had to overdo it.  Pretty soon Mom would holler out, "Cut that out!  You will break that porch swing!"