951 Diestel Road
January 2013
We live at 951 Diestel Road. The house was built in the mid 1920’s and my grandparents, Harold and Lucille Bowman, bought the house in the late 1930’s for around $5000. My mom, Ann Bowman Scott, grew up in the house and my daughter sleeps in the same bedroom she slept (with the same wallpaper). I grew up visiting and staying at this home all my life and purchased the home in 2003.
When we were kids, we would visit my grandparents weekly or more. Lucille use to feed us white bread, butter and sugar sandwiches and we would sit on the porch and she would garden – her garden was beautiful, she would let us pick all the violets out of the grass. Harold did most of the heavy work in the garden and built all the walls, terraces, and fireplace dragging stones from the gully. He offered the WPA workers a bottle of whiskey to build steps into the gully from the backyard, so he would have easier access as he loved to explore (the WPA built all the beautiful gully walls and bridges). Even today, people still take stones out of the WPA bridge and walls to use in their yards. Not sure if anyone still calls it a gully, but we do, since childhood. In the garden, Lucille had a lovely mock orange tree and American Beauty Rose outside the back door. She was known for her petunia beds that she planted into her nineties. “Don’t plant until Memorial Day” was her mantra to avoid the last freeze. When I smell alyssum I am always reminded of the garden. Hopefully we have done Harold and Lucille justice by keeping the garden in beauty year round.
The gully was a great playground. Liz, my sister, and I played down there in the summer. We would set up house down by the church fireplace and climb under the stone bridge. We would collect beans from the pea shrubs and honeysuckle berries and bring them up to the house as our “lunch.” Harold would BBQ in the back yard and my parents would lounge on the white wrought iron patio furniture. My parents, Ann and Lynn Scott, were married in the backyard in 1954. Sometimes now, we see lights on the bridge in the gully and wonder if someone’s having a ceremony. I recall that hippies used to camp in the gully back in the 60’s.
The house has always been shingled with a black roof and shutters. My grandparents added on the garage and built a sunroom and piano room in the back, a small bathroom, too. When we moved in to the house in 2004, our efforts included an updated kitchen, bathroom, furnace and finished basement. Otherwise we kept it the same. The cabbage rose wallpaper in our bedroom is still there from Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, when he and Eleanor had the same pattern. The glass doorknobs, doors, trim, fixtures still exist and we have several antiques that have graced the home since the 30’s. The floor plan of the house is the same as the Love’s and Davey’s homes on either side. We occasionally got a scolding for bumping down the wide staircase like a sledding hill and scuffing up the wall to wall wool carpet with our shoes. But mostly we loved throwing playing cards down the laundry shoot and playing "who's got the button" and "dab on" with our Bama and Papa. The coolest thing in the house was the hanging lamp in the kitchen that we could pull down low over the table.
We mostly spent time with my grandparents when visiting, although there were a couple of kids next door, Kathy and Curtis, and their grandfather we called the Colonel. Besides the sugar-butter-Winder bread sandwiches, Lucille was an excellent cook. She had a great 7-bone pot roast, chocolate balls, and casseroles. On occasion when I whip up something in the oven the house takes on an aroma reminiscent of childhood. Sunday dinner was a standard visit at my grandparents, with Lawrence Welk, Carol Burnett, Sixty Minutes, or Wizard of Oz on the TV console. Lucille had a baby grand piano and often played her favorites, too. Thanksgiving on Diestel was always a tradition.
We spent a lot of time here with my grandmother in her later life. Clearing her walks, gardening, visiting, playing the piano. All the neighbors were very good to her. She would often walk down to the Campbell’s for help opening pickle jars or cross the street to visit the Rice’s or Davey’s. For a time she had a contingent of caretakers from Brazil looking after her and the house. They would take he on various outings, which she loved. One day, her care-friend Dorothy, took her to Ogden to pick up a pig for a Polynesian party. Another time, she was invited for a children's birthday party and sleepover. She often dined at Brazilian restaurants.
Since our move to Diestel, we have enjoyed our neighbors with BBQ’s and holiday parties. So nice to have everyone come together and visit. It's a joy to see lots of warm hugs and good gossip.
We’ve had a few crises – house and car break-ins, fires, the occasional gully disturbance and explosion. This winter we watched the transformer blow, spew blue sparks and orange flame and put the lights out - that was exciting, though inconvenient. One year we had a few suicide squirrels living in a gully transformer and had a couple of outages. The June oil spill - the day it happened was rainy and so I went through our gate and walked around the path. It was eerie and quiet, wet and oily smelling. During the closure and cleanup I occasionally would go through our gate and check out the clean-up progress, talk to the workmen. If anything, the gully was very quiet and peaceful that summer while it was closed. How about the pipe bombs a couple springs ago that set off everyones alarms - we found some of the bomb debris in the gully later that summer. Fires - the house up the street caught fire a couple years back. Nothing wakes you up like fire engines and smoke coming through your bedroom window. We all stood about and watched, caught up on gossip, commented on PJ's. There was a house fire on Greenwood Terrace a few years back, too. Hate to see this happen, so while you are reading this, make a point to check your own homes for fire and safety measures. Mostly I say this because we live so close together that I don't want your house fire to catch my house on fire. We've had a rash of house robberies, too. I can think of five on our little block over a two year period - a bit disconcerting. The cops did catch a robber in the gully after an attempted break in up the street - that was exciting. Neighborhood conspiracy theory suggested a ring of maids were casing the houses. Don't know about that. Can't count the number of car window smashes, but we've had our unfair share. My favorite witness stories are the night the drunk guy crashed his scooter out front and laughed and giggled on his phone until his friend came to help - and - the day during curbside cleanup I saw, too late, some guys steal the neighbor's trailer. Boy, that made me mad - I cursed a bunch.
I like to sit out front and meet the neighbors and dogs that walk by – Ben Gee, Zelda, Angus and Maggie, Roxy, Leisel, Muggins, Jingle. Lucy has a bag of dog treats in the house that she brings out. Ute game days are of course a big people-watching day, we don’t mind all the cars. It’s very festive and exciting – we can hear the stadium cheers and cannon fire from the house. Halloween, too, is a fun night to see the neighbors out – we must give out candy to more than a 100 kids. For several years we had a spook alley in the garage that the neighbor kids would haunt. And of course we have our nice holiday lights thanks for Doug, Bobby, George and Ron. One year, for Lucy's birthday, we hosted a petting zoo in our garage complete with pony rides in the backyard and a pony cart in the street - it rained, we all smelled like wet dog.
Our gully of course offers lots of walking and playing. Sometimes when I’m in the garden and I hear someone yelling out to “Come on!” I don’t know if they are talking to their kids, dogs, or spouse – kind of entertaining. One can eavesdrop on a number of conversations while gardening, especially because people don’t often see me working.
We should keep track of birds in our neighborhood, too. I thought I would put up a Bird page to our site – let me know what I can add.
We live at 951 Diestel Road. The house was built in the mid 1920’s and my grandparents, Harold and Lucille Bowman, bought the house in the late 1930’s for around $5000. My mom, Ann Bowman Scott, grew up in the house and my daughter sleeps in the same bedroom she slept (with the same wallpaper). I grew up visiting and staying at this home all my life and purchased the home in 2003.
When we were kids, we would visit my grandparents weekly or more. Lucille use to feed us white bread, butter and sugar sandwiches and we would sit on the porch and she would garden – her garden was beautiful, she would let us pick all the violets out of the grass. Harold did most of the heavy work in the garden and built all the walls, terraces, and fireplace dragging stones from the gully. He offered the WPA workers a bottle of whiskey to build steps into the gully from the backyard, so he would have easier access as he loved to explore (the WPA built all the beautiful gully walls and bridges). Even today, people still take stones out of the WPA bridge and walls to use in their yards. Not sure if anyone still calls it a gully, but we do, since childhood. In the garden, Lucille had a lovely mock orange tree and American Beauty Rose outside the back door. She was known for her petunia beds that she planted into her nineties. “Don’t plant until Memorial Day” was her mantra to avoid the last freeze. When I smell alyssum I am always reminded of the garden. Hopefully we have done Harold and Lucille justice by keeping the garden in beauty year round.
The gully was a great playground. Liz, my sister, and I played down there in the summer. We would set up house down by the church fireplace and climb under the stone bridge. We would collect beans from the pea shrubs and honeysuckle berries and bring them up to the house as our “lunch.” Harold would BBQ in the back yard and my parents would lounge on the white wrought iron patio furniture. My parents, Ann and Lynn Scott, were married in the backyard in 1954. Sometimes now, we see lights on the bridge in the gully and wonder if someone’s having a ceremony. I recall that hippies used to camp in the gully back in the 60’s.
The house has always been shingled with a black roof and shutters. My grandparents added on the garage and built a sunroom and piano room in the back, a small bathroom, too. When we moved in to the house in 2004, our efforts included an updated kitchen, bathroom, furnace and finished basement. Otherwise we kept it the same. The cabbage rose wallpaper in our bedroom is still there from Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, when he and Eleanor had the same pattern. The glass doorknobs, doors, trim, fixtures still exist and we have several antiques that have graced the home since the 30’s. The floor plan of the house is the same as the Love’s and Davey’s homes on either side. We occasionally got a scolding for bumping down the wide staircase like a sledding hill and scuffing up the wall to wall wool carpet with our shoes. But mostly we loved throwing playing cards down the laundry shoot and playing "who's got the button" and "dab on" with our Bama and Papa. The coolest thing in the house was the hanging lamp in the kitchen that we could pull down low over the table.
We mostly spent time with my grandparents when visiting, although there were a couple of kids next door, Kathy and Curtis, and their grandfather we called the Colonel. Besides the sugar-butter-Winder bread sandwiches, Lucille was an excellent cook. She had a great 7-bone pot roast, chocolate balls, and casseroles. On occasion when I whip up something in the oven the house takes on an aroma reminiscent of childhood. Sunday dinner was a standard visit at my grandparents, with Lawrence Welk, Carol Burnett, Sixty Minutes, or Wizard of Oz on the TV console. Lucille had a baby grand piano and often played her favorites, too. Thanksgiving on Diestel was always a tradition.
We spent a lot of time here with my grandmother in her later life. Clearing her walks, gardening, visiting, playing the piano. All the neighbors were very good to her. She would often walk down to the Campbell’s for help opening pickle jars or cross the street to visit the Rice’s or Davey’s. For a time she had a contingent of caretakers from Brazil looking after her and the house. They would take he on various outings, which she loved. One day, her care-friend Dorothy, took her to Ogden to pick up a pig for a Polynesian party. Another time, she was invited for a children's birthday party and sleepover. She often dined at Brazilian restaurants.
Since our move to Diestel, we have enjoyed our neighbors with BBQ’s and holiday parties. So nice to have everyone come together and visit. It's a joy to see lots of warm hugs and good gossip.
We’ve had a few crises – house and car break-ins, fires, the occasional gully disturbance and explosion. This winter we watched the transformer blow, spew blue sparks and orange flame and put the lights out - that was exciting, though inconvenient. One year we had a few suicide squirrels living in a gully transformer and had a couple of outages. The June oil spill - the day it happened was rainy and so I went through our gate and walked around the path. It was eerie and quiet, wet and oily smelling. During the closure and cleanup I occasionally would go through our gate and check out the clean-up progress, talk to the workmen. If anything, the gully was very quiet and peaceful that summer while it was closed. How about the pipe bombs a couple springs ago that set off everyones alarms - we found some of the bomb debris in the gully later that summer. Fires - the house up the street caught fire a couple years back. Nothing wakes you up like fire engines and smoke coming through your bedroom window. We all stood about and watched, caught up on gossip, commented on PJ's. There was a house fire on Greenwood Terrace a few years back, too. Hate to see this happen, so while you are reading this, make a point to check your own homes for fire and safety measures. Mostly I say this because we live so close together that I don't want your house fire to catch my house on fire. We've had a rash of house robberies, too. I can think of five on our little block over a two year period - a bit disconcerting. The cops did catch a robber in the gully after an attempted break in up the street - that was exciting. Neighborhood conspiracy theory suggested a ring of maids were casing the houses. Don't know about that. Can't count the number of car window smashes, but we've had our unfair share. My favorite witness stories are the night the drunk guy crashed his scooter out front and laughed and giggled on his phone until his friend came to help - and - the day during curbside cleanup I saw, too late, some guys steal the neighbor's trailer. Boy, that made me mad - I cursed a bunch.
I like to sit out front and meet the neighbors and dogs that walk by – Ben Gee, Zelda, Angus and Maggie, Roxy, Leisel, Muggins, Jingle. Lucy has a bag of dog treats in the house that she brings out. Ute game days are of course a big people-watching day, we don’t mind all the cars. It’s very festive and exciting – we can hear the stadium cheers and cannon fire from the house. Halloween, too, is a fun night to see the neighbors out – we must give out candy to more than a 100 kids. For several years we had a spook alley in the garage that the neighbor kids would haunt. And of course we have our nice holiday lights thanks for Doug, Bobby, George and Ron. One year, for Lucy's birthday, we hosted a petting zoo in our garage complete with pony rides in the backyard and a pony cart in the street - it rained, we all smelled like wet dog.
Our gully of course offers lots of walking and playing. Sometimes when I’m in the garden and I hear someone yelling out to “Come on!” I don’t know if they are talking to their kids, dogs, or spouse – kind of entertaining. One can eavesdrop on a number of conversations while gardening, especially because people don’t often see me working.
We should keep track of birds in our neighborhood, too. I thought I would put up a Bird page to our site – let me know what I can add.