Post #28

 

 
"Is this a CKCW Halloween House?"
Why, yes it is!  What was your first clue?
I was a big mark for CKCW, our AM radio station back in the early 80s that played all the big hits.  They had some kind of a Top 5 show every night where callers would phone in and vote for their favorite song at the time.  At the end of it every night, you'd have a chance to call in and tell them the top 5 songs in order to get yourself a prize.  I got a LOT of prizes.  Records, clothing, gold chains, food, you name it, I won it.
Right here see our windows all decked out in rah rah CKCW imagery... Pac Man was new and a really big deal at the time with kids like me, and I took it upon myself to make a pumpkin Pac Man gobbling up pills and chasing 'ghosts'.  The deal was, if you decorated your house with a CKCW theme, you might be asked to become a 'CKCW Halloween House', where you'd distribute prizes to those who asked.  In return, you'd get a boatload of swag from CKCW.  I can't remember what they gave me, but it was a lot.  Especially to a little kid like me.
The thing is, once one kid figured out somehow (HOW did they figure it out???) that our house was one of them, he/she would tell all the other kids that followed, and the stuff to give away would evaporate quite quickly.  It was .... kind of a fllawed promotion!  But it made a lot of people put their call letters on their windows, resulting in absolutely free promotion.
Anyway, this is the front of 136, prior picture-window.  You can see the black storm windows attached over the regular ones for the winter.  Mom was pretty savvy with pinching pennies, which added up to many dollars in savings.  Many wondered how she managed, because she got little to no help from the Department of Veteran Affairs.  They virtually ignored her plight, despite serving in WWII and Dad being an overseas signalman with medals.  It's a shame you have to fight so hard to get what's deservedly yours sometimes.  
Mom did apply for some kind of government program, though, to get the house fixed up a bit.  The basement was expanded by about ten square feet under our back porch, siding was installed, and I think insulation was put in, among a few other things.

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