Biographical Notes reCharles A. (Chuck) StonePage 1 of 3 Pages, of Chapter 12,A SECOND HOMECOMING |
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| It was an interesting trip home with the U-Haul Truck, U-Haul Trailer, followed by a loaded down Ford Station Wagon. I drove the truck with Nell and Sandie following , with two poodles and nine Finches in a bird cage of considerable size, our luggage and anything else that wouldn’t fit in the truck or trailer. Although I had learned to taxi an RB-29 or a B-47, it took me a while to feel comfortable wheeling that rig down the highway. Parking where it wasn’t necessary for me to back up was high on my priority list. It was a relatively uneventful trip and we came through OK, arriving on 26 May, 1973. |
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| On arrival, after checking in with friends and family, we had a look at our house that had basement walls, a basement floor, all fully covered with floor joists and covered with the first layer of underlayment. We unloaded out stuff in a temporary rental unit we had found advertised in the Little Falls newspaper before ever leaving Flagstaff. It was no castle, but certainly adequate for our needs. I turned the U-Haul equipment in to the local dealer, picked up my tools and belt and reported in to join the crew on the house. Nell and Sandie were busy catching mice and making our temporary quarters livable. As they were able, they began to pitch in on the construction project wherever they could. The project progressed rapidly under Norris’s supervision, two union carpenters, and our family of three. We built our own trusses and soon had the roof in place and began the shingling process. Our son, David, having finished Electronics Tech School in Denver, stopped by enroute to Shemya Radar Base, one island short of the end of the Aleutian Chain, in Alaska. We celebrated his arrival by giving him a hammer and nails, asking him to help us shingle the roof. We tried to properly welcome him in other ways, but his participation and chance to play a part in this process was much appreciated. By July and early August, we had the doors and windows in, the fireplace and chimneys built, furnaces and ducting installed, plumbing in to the point where we had one sink at one end of the house and a toilet that would flush at the other. The sheetrock had been installed by a crew of professionals. That done, we installed the layer of particle board flooring on the main floor. The exterior wall studs were covered with a fiber board and the house was fully insulated before the sheetrock was installed. The final finish would be brick, but that would come later. With that, the professional crew departed for other projects. Nell’s brother remained available for advice, when requested. I proceeded to install our shop tools in the basement as soon as possible, including a commercial vacuum system to collect sawdust, located in what was designated as the woodworking shop area. |
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Photo taken in summer of 1972. |
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midsummer, 1973. |
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Air Force notes. |
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| To get by, we purchased some old store display cabinets at an auction, set them up in the family room and used them to store nonperishable materials. As soon as we had a feel of our house layout, we began drawing up the kitchen cabinet arrangements, ordered the materials and began their construction. When they were installed in place, we found them to serve our needs very well, as they do yet today. Nell and Sandie became official stainers and vanishers as I moved through the house cutting and installing trim, doors, etc. |
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End of Page 1 of 3 Pages, Chapter 12 — Go to Page 2 Click below to select a destination Go to Page 1 — 2 — 3, this Chapter Chapters 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 — 8 — 9 — 10 |
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