The Ganzer Family

9:57:00 AM judyo53 0 Comments

Below are a couple of pictures of my parents and grandparents. I feel that looking through all of the old photos I have that my Mom favors Grandpa Daniel with her looks. Sometimes I see my brother (your uncle) Jimmy in both Grandpa's and Mom's photos.

I never mentioned that my Mom and Dad lived with Grampa and Grandma Ganzer for 7 to 8 years and purchased their first home in Blue Island with the cash they saved. I think they paid $8,000 for their house.

The Ganzer house was what we call a bungalow style. It was all brick and all on one level with a basement. It had an enclosed front porch, very small foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen with a walk-in pantry, 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. There was also an enclosed back porch.

Grandma Ganzer loved her gardening and always had pretty flowers growing in the spring and summer. There was a garage in the fenced-in backyard that had alley access.

The house I grew up in was different. It was all brick but more like a cape cod style (like the typical children's house drawings). On the main floor was the living room, dining room, kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms. Upstairs was a family room and my big and beautiful bedroom with my own bathroom (no shower or tub) and big closet. The basement was fully finished with a recreation room with a bar, bathroom with a shower, Dad's work room and a combination laundry room with a "summer kitchen."

I loved playing in our fenced-in backyard and Mom would bake cherry pies with the fresh cherries from our cherry trees (until the cherries had worms one year). We had a two car garage that also had alley access. Both of these Blue Island homes were towards the top of pretty steep hills.