6432 Woodward Avenue

Welcome to my first post in this Blog.  I’m glad that you have found your way here, but maybe you just ended up here by chance?  As long as you are here, you might as well stay awhile.

What I hope to do with this Blog is to share with the readers some of my memories of the wonderful childhood I had on Woodward Avenue in Hammond, Indiana, during the 1950s and 1960s.  I would dearly love to receive comments from others who grew up in Hammond during those days.

Dad moved us from Homerlee Avenue in East Chicago to our home at 6432 Woodward Avenue in November of 1955, when I was six years old and was in first grade.  I transferred from McKinley School to Wallace Elementary School for the remainder of first grade and continued to attend school there through the sixth grade. 

I have very few childhood memories that go all the way back to my days in East Chicago; almost all of them are from my days on Woodward Avenue. 

This is what our house looked like when we first moved in.  This was taken during our first summer on Woodward Avenue, the summer of 1956.

The Tonkoviches lived in the house to the left (south) of ours, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Eades lived in the house to the right (north).

We lived a simple, Lower Middle Class lifestyle, but I was rich in all the ways that really matter.  I had a mom and a dad who loved me, who kept their marriage vows, and who took me to church every Sunday.  They both made tremendous sacrifices for me, but they did it cheerfully and willingly.

I would not change a thing about my childhood.

Tom