Blog, SoCS

SoCS – Thoughts that Ramble On

Maggie

Linda is back with our SoCS prompt today. We get to choose the word or words we use today, so let’s get to it.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “—amble.” Add letters to the beginning of “-amble” to make another word or use it as is in your post. Enjoy!

Amble down memory lane with me, will you? Firstt stop, my Dad’s rambler. 

The rambler was here and gone before I had my driver’s license so I never got to drive it. I think it was my dad’s project car. I looked through some photos online and I am guessing it was a ‘67 judging by the body style. It was blue and I honestly don’t remember if it had ‘four on the floor’ or not. I do believe this is the car my brother drove home on the rim after he had a flat tire. Our dad was not happy.

This car sat in the driveway of our house when we lived in Ohio. The house was a slightly rectangular ranch style house. I popped out to see if there is a recent photo of the house and surprise, surprise look what I found.

A family of six living in a 3 bedroom one bath house totally 924 square feet. Trying to get into the bathroom (4 female vs. 2 males) could be a real gamble!

The house sat on 1/3 of an acre and was built in 1967 – the same year as the AMC Rambler I think.

Come to think of it, one story houses were also known as ramblers. They were quite popular in that time frame, although considered more expensive to build because of the increased foundation and roof size. But, our little house was definitely a ranch because it had a basement and no sliding glass doors which were hallmarks on a rambler style house.

I loved our big yard. We had enough room for a badminton net, horseshoes and a big front yard where we often gathered with all the kids in the neighborhood to play touch football or Jarts – remember those?

I think my parents had a dream of building their own home because we had a few books of house plans lying around. I loved thumbing through the pages looking at the black and white floorplan and elevation drawings. I suppose I also dreamed of building my own home, but I never did. That might have been fun at an earlier point in my life, but given today’s economy and supply chain issues I am not sure my heart could take it! 

Okay, you can step out of the brambles of my intertangled thoughts now. Thanks for coming along on the journey, though.

21 thoughts on “SoCS – Thoughts that Ramble On”

  1. My father had three different Ramble station wagons. None remained when I turned 16, but I remember riding in them on errands and back and forth to visit his mother and his sisters. I also remember Jarts – life before safety rules – but hey, we survived.

    I hope you enjoy the 4th, Maggie. Great job on the prompt.

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    1. We are laying low this weekend. We are in drought conditions I hope people are responsible with their fireworks. I hope you have a great weekend, too

      My dad loved his rambler. I think it was more compact and fun to drive than the station wagons we had. I suppose it was practical, too.

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  2. Thanks for the ride, Maggie. Although I find it hard that you could write a post on a rambler without mentioning that you could could lay the seat all the wat back into a flat prone position.

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    1. Maybe I never knew that, Don. 😉 I was an observer and sometimes passenger. Thanks for adding that little tidbit of information! Always a pleasure to see you here.

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    1. Willow, they are a brand name for lawn darts – long pointed metal ‘arrows’ thrown across the yard toward a circular target. They were very dangerous projectiles!

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  4. When I was a child in London, one of our neighbours drove a 1950s Nash Rambler. I thought it was very exotic! But the left-hand drive made it awkward in England.
    1954 Nash Rambler
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  5. I remember Ramblers. When I was a teenager, a friend’s parents had one and we thought its neatest feature was that you could recline the front seats all the way back to make a bed, which he said came in handy on dates. Where I live now, single story homes are known as ranch homes, but back east when I was growing up, we called them ramblers.

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    1. I did not know about the seats in a Rambler. I think I read somewhere the Rambler style of house originated in California – or at least out west.

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  6. It was fun reading about your dad’s rambler. I was a bit young when we had ours, but I knew my parents liked it, for a while, anyway. Seems like it was already old. Having one bathroom in the house been the norm for most of my life and still is. That’s just the way it was. Having two sisters and no brothers helped. If you were going to be in there for a long time, you always asked, “Does anyone need to go to the bathroom before I get in there?” Dad set the example for that since he was often in there for a long time. He probably liked the privacy.

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    1. The jockeying for the bathroom was always a challenge in our house. The house we live in now has three, but I think the third was added so there would be one on the first floor.

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