The picture above was of the house over 50 years after the Heidens occupied it. The pictures below give a better representation of how the place looked in the early 50s.

This farm which was owned by Harold Laskey was the home of Art and Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden along with their children Harold, Joyce, Ronald and Ralph  for about 5 years in the early 1950s. Their daughter Kay Lynn was born in 1954 while the family lived in this house.

Art milked cows in the barn and the kids played in the hay mow. The old house was heated by a large wood fired furnace in the basement. A 3 or 4 foot square grating in the floor released heat to the entire house. Gratings in the floors of the second story allowed the heat to find its way upstairs...eventually.

 

A typical farm yard for that era. To the left is a large corn crib with storage for machinery in the middle of the building. The two silos are for storing ensilage which is finely chopped stalks of corn. This was used for part of the winter feed for the cows.

Joyce at about 16 (1953 or 54) standing on the east side of the house. As you can see, lawns were not always neatly clipped in those days.

I am proud to say that she went on to be crowned "Miss Dundee" in her senior year of high school.

Picture taken in the living room of 12444 Dixon Road about 1955. Left to Right: Art (43), Kay (2), Mildred (41), Joyce (17), Harold (21) and Ron (13). In front, Ralph (7).

Art and Mil in front of the barn. The milk house where large metal cans of milk were stored in a water filled cooler tank is to the right. Periodically a stout, strong man would come wearing a long, leather apron and hoist the cans out of the cooler and into a refrigerated truck.

That's me about 5 years old (1953) washing off my feet before going into the house. I am on top of the cistern where rain water from the roof was collected. The downspouts come together behind me and empty into a ceramic pipe to the cistern. In the background is an old Plymouth car probably from the late 1940s.

Most farms had their own gasoline storage tank to service the tractors and other machinery. It was not unusual to hear noises in the  middle of the night sometimes as teenagers might try to fill their car's tank for free. That is one of the reasons that large mercury vapor lights came on at sundown became so popular on farms.

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