These are then and now pictures of the duplex house #'s 13 and 15 Franklin Street, Brandon, Vermont. The house was purchased by Orville Clark Baker as a residence located directly across the street from his original residence and doctor's office at 16 Franklin Street. The house at 16 was considerably grander but by the time I came along Orville was long gone and I was never inside. In fact, I never heard my mother speak of 16 Franklin; when she was born her parents lived at 13 Franklin and her grandparents lived at 15. My grandfather, Clarence Baker, had his optometrist office at 1 1/2 Center Street. When I was born and visited in Brandon my grandmother lived at 15 where pictures show that we had several of our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.
The most intriguing thing about the house to my childhood mind was a bedroom on the second floor that had access from both sides of the house. When Clarence and Madge decided to move from one side of the house to the other, this bedroom belonged to my uncle Chas. He simply locked the door from 13 and opened the door from 15 and never had to move at all.
My grandmother had a phonograph player and the classic recording of Peter and the Wolf. I loved this recording. She also had two books that are now with me, both of which I adored. One of them was about the "Teenie Weenies", a whole community of very small persons for whom a single strawberry could make a feast. I read it every time I visited and took it for my own when my grandmother died. Likewise another book-- one about the Dionne Quintuplets. I will write more about the lives of my grandparents in another post.
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