Our Family Lived in a Tiny House Before They Became Popular
Lots of people in our neighborhood in the 1950s were minimalists by necessity.
The little house on Brook Lane
Our original home was a depression house built in 1938, two small rooms and an outhouse outside. When my parents bought it in 1948, it was already ten years old. It was located in a rural area of Galloway Township, New Jersey. They purchased a half-acre lot and the house and right away began adding onto it. My dad built a six-foot addition onto the back of it to allow for a kitchen area. He also built a workshop for himself to keep tools and provide space for building and other projects.
The one small room was the dining room, living room, and laundry at once with a short hallway to the front door and a bedroom off to the side. The bedroom was about big enough for a bed and bureau. When I came along the next year, I had a crib in the hallway outside the bedroom. When my sister was born three years later, once she moved past the crib stage, she and I got the bed and our parents slept on the pull-out couch in the other room.
I suspect mom alternated between both beds like a good mother, making sure we were well and sleeping, and that dad was not disturbed. Mom loved us and hovered, worrying about us a good deal more than dad. It’s not that…
