Househunting in the 40's

   My parents were always in the market for improved housing.They'd started out in a house or apartment in Valley Falls, near where the entrance to the mill was, then to a farm tenant house on Route 40, and on to Brundige Road, then the house by the the Reservoir and, last as non-owners, the house on the curve going out of the Valley.
  Somewhere along the line, someone my father knew, Mr. J., spoke of his  house in Melrose, on Route 40. It was situated above a roadside concrete wall, near where Wood's turkey farm later was. We all drove over there one day, and my father went to the door. There was no answer, though J's mother was supposed to be home to see about the house. My father must have looked through the window, or maybe the door was open. Anyway, he saw the woman lying on the floor.
    He took the next step, which in the days of no phone access or emergency services as we know them, meant he drove to J's house and told him what he'd  found.
   We kids were pretty young. I have a vivid memory of the  man leaving his house and going to his garage, where in order to open the door to get his car out, he had to remove a number of boards that supported, as well as made up, the garage door.  My mother thought it looked like a scene from one of those comedy movies, the man desperately unbuilding his garage or such.
   I don't know what happened after that, only that we did not move into that house.