My bedroom window – 1953

The window on the top left was our bedroom window.

The parsonage now and us back in 1953.

In 2004 I spent a day driving around Detroit taking photographs of places where I used to live and of other houses family members lived in.  The angle of this house fit almost perfectly with the photograph taken in 1953 of my father with my little sister Pearl and me.  We are in front of the parsonage on Atkinson. My father was the minister of St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, two blocks up the street on the corner of 12th Street and Atkinson.

My sister and I shared the bedroom on the upper left.  We used to look out of the side window into the attic of Carol and Deborah. They were our age and lived next door and got to stay up much later then we did. They had a wonderful playroom in the attic.  I taught Pearl to read by the streetlight shinning into our bedroom.  I don’t know why we waited until we were supposed to be in the bed to teach and learn reading.

Sometimes after Pearl was asleep, I would kneel in front of the windows and look out. I remember an amazing pale pink Cadillac. The cars I had seen up until then were dark colors.  I remember looking out of that window and watching for my mother to get home.  Was she taking night classes while working on her teaching certificate?

On our other side lived Eleanor Gross with her family. Eleanor was a teenager and babysat with us during the rare times our parents went out.  My paternal grandparents lived down the street.

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11 thoughts on “My bedroom window – 1953

  1. This is a wonderful thing to do. I wish I could go back to our old haunts and re-photograph like this.

    Your Mr Linky directs to last week’s contribution, not this one.

  2. Thank you for this lovely post! And such an amazing house. I am a big visitor of past lives and have photographed homes where I lived — and where my parents, grandparents and more distant ancestors lived, too. Nice to know I am not the only one doing this. 🙂

  3. Your photomontage makes a terrific effect. I recently visited my grandmother’s old home with my mother this summer, which has changed very little, and you’ve inspired me to try making a similar collage photo for her. Your memories of your bedroom window make this a wonderful post.

    1. I used layers in photoshop, but I would guess any program that uses layers and changes in transparency would work as well. I hope you will share your collage when you finish it.

      I’ve always enjoyed looking at life outside of my windows. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) there is not a lot happening outside of my present windows.

  4. A terrific job blending the two pictures years apart! Kudos! I watched all sorts of things out my bedroom window. I could see San Francisco Bay and both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge and eventually the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge from my window. I could also see the drive-in movie screen a few blocks down the hill. My brother and I used to watch the movies at night with binoculars. 🙂

  5. The two photos layered together made me do a double take. Usually a “then and now” pair are side by side, and there is inevitably a difference in something or another. But you did it spot on! Me too, looking out windows is most enjoyable, though sometimes just boring.

  6. I’m inspired to try this too, although it does take a perfectly matched set of photos. I envy having a second story window…you could see so much more of the world. Loved reading about you teaching your sister.

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