Monday, December 25, 2017

House design, The Shotgun



Tonight’s Historical Photo:


 This is a 5 Mega Bite hard drive being loaded onto Pan Am for shipment. This could be the Shotgun House,  compared to the Trump Towers.  It hurts to know I remember this size drive very well and I was in my Twenties.

Now to The Shotgun
     I had better explain the shot gun house I mentioned earlier.  It is called a shotgun house because of the simple design. Daddy said it was because you could stand in the front door and shoot your shotgun thru the back door.

The design was used by the poorer class who wanted to own their own home. The house was 12-14 feet wide and about 36 ft deep (some were only 24 feet). Being very compact, it could be set on a very small lot.

At the older shotguns, you walked thru the front door into the living room at times a combination bedroom/living room. At about 12 feet there was another wall or sometimes just furniture (Anwar(?)) that separated it from the Kitchen/eating area. About 12-14 feet then another wall or cabinets. The last was a bedroom another 12 feet.(The master bedroom if you please). The back door either lead to the porch on which if it was a classy house, there was the toilet to the left or right. In the earlier houses the back door led to the path to the outhouse. 

In my blog entry when I mentioned the Shotgun House It was the simple design. Enter the Bedroom, thru the cooking area and out the back door to the path. My Uncle Inman said, “Jackie, a house ain’t nothing but a place to eat and sleep, this is all you need.” Uncle Inman was a single man, a widower. He was not the High Sheriff but some ‘low Sheriff’ He wasn’t called a deputy. I never understood his position in law enforcement. 

I do know a single man looks at a house different than a family man. Because to a family man, that house becomes a HOME even if it is a Shotgun house.

My Granny Lloyd lived in a Shotgun house in South GAstonia, NC. But it was a Duplex, Two shotguns side by side. Granny had a toilet on the back porch.
Now for today, basically Sherry and I live in a Shotgun house, except for the front and back doors. LOL Uncle Inman would be proud of me.

Nite Shipslog

Ps: APHORISM : A SHORT,CLEVER POINTED SENTENCE
i.e.
Rub a cat (or dog) on the belly
and you will have a job for life.

This truck was new the last time I slept in a shotgun house. 1946

8 comments:

TARYTERRE said...

All you need are the basics. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

betty said...

Bet a lot of homeless people would be glad for a shotgun home! Anything with a roof over their heads.

Hope you all had a great day!

betty

Glenda said...

Okey dokey, Hokey Pokey....you are hittin' close to home....my spread is large enuf, but small inside the boundary...will need some guns and ropes for the critters...startin' tomorrrow on catchin'.


I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

I have seen remodels done on shot gun homes on tv. They were very narrow and long . Maybe my home would qualify as one too , although not historic at all. It is long and narrow. But doors are not in front and back but on the sides. Ha! Hope you had a Merry Christmas !

Dar said...

I remember Dad talking about shotgun houses but can't say he ever lived in one. I do remember the little house down from the farm where we'd walk crossing a creek, go through a 40 acre woods, then across a field as kids, to Grandma and Grandpa's. It was a tiny 3 room house with low ceilings. You sure keep your daily print interesting. I thank you for that. I love the recall it gives us.
love n' hugs from up north in our bitter weather. We woke to minus-24 degrees. Bill is in it now, feeding the deer and birds to help keep them warm.....stay warm down there.

Chatty Crone said...

Well now I understand what it is and I can truly picture it. Reminds me of today's mobile homes just a bit. Gosh is there anything you forget - you have one of those photographic memories - I can't even think of the name of that now! Happy New Year. sandie

Lisa said...

Those were the good old days. I think I would like one of those simple built homes. Im thinking they were made this way to keep cool in the summer.

Hope yall had a Merry Christmas.
LIsa

Mevely317 said...

Aside from a bump-out kitchen and bedrooms upstairs, I suppose our (government-built) home in Los Alamos was a shot-gun affair.
Interesting, isn't it ... the popularity of tiny homes today. Lots to be said for getting back to the basics.