Lifetime of memories: Cindy Miller has lived in same one-story Topeka home for 68 years

At age 73, Topekan Cindy Miller still lives in her childhood home.

Being there gives her a sense of comfort, Miller told The Capital-Journal on Monday.

That house holds a lifetime of memories, she said.

Appraiser's records say one-story house was built in 1946

Miller was among those who replied after The Capital-Journal asked Topeka History Geeks Facebook Group members which Shawnee County residents have lived in their current homes the longest.

Group members told The Capital-Journal about two houses where current residents have lived more than 70 years. Miller was next on the list.

She said she's lived about 68 years in the house in the 900 block of S.W. Medford Avenue, three blocks west of S.W. MacVicar Avenue.

That house is one story tall, and has an attic and a basement.

Shawnee County appraiser's office records say it was built in 1946, though Miller's understanding is that her parents lived there in 1945.

'Everybody took care of everybody else's kids'

Miller said she was born Aug. 22, 1949, at Vail Hospital in Topeka's Potwin neighborhood, the youngest of two children of Harold "Andy" and Marie Anderson.

She weighed 7 pounds and 4.5 ounces, the next day's Topeka Daily Capital reported.

Miller's childhood was a happy one.

She said she grew up in a "great neighborhood" where everybody knew each other and there were "lots of kids," who would play outside together until dark.

"Everybody took care of everybody else's kids," she said.

Miller's thoughts drifted back to gatherings held in her house's front yard when she was a child.

"The kids from the block would all come down and eat watermelon," she said.

Miller recalled buying Satin-Freeze ice cream for a dime as a child at Bobo's, a drive-in that opened in 1953 about three blocks to the east at 2300 S.W. 10th Ave.

"I got Bobo's today and Satin-Freeze was $1.99," she said.

More:At Home: Landmark Topeka homes — History still standing

'My kids had the big bedroom and I had the little one'

Miller said being in her house brings back memories of training bird dogs with her father, a Goodyear employee who worked as an electrician on the side. He also was an avid hunter and trap shooter.

Andy Anderson died of a heart attack at age 36, when Miller was 9 years old, she said.

Miller said she got married in 1970 and moved away from her childhood home, but the marriage didn't last.

She said she moved back in with her mother in about 1975.

After her mother died of lung cancer in 1977, Miller bought the house.

Miller said that after receiving training from Kaw Area Vocational Technical School, she commuted for 26 years between Topeka and the Greater Kansas City area, working there as an engineering technician for a steel company.

Meanwhile, she raised a son and three daughters, born from three different relationships, in the two-bedroom house on S.W. Medford.

"I raised four kids, but not all at the same time," she said. "My kids had the big bedroom and I had the little one."

More:At Home: Landmark Topeka homes — History still standing

'I think I'd miss it if I moved'

Residents of Miller's home have also included various dogs and cats, with two dogs and a cat living there now.

Miller said that after being laid off from her engineering technician's job at age 60, she renovated her house's interior considerably, including knocking out an interior wall and removing its chimney and fireplace.

Miller then worked as a project manager for a Topeka software company until retiring at age 68, though she still works part-time at a bookstore, she said.

Miller said she never would have thought she would have spent so many years in her childhood home. She's considered moving several times, she said.

Still, it's never gotten to the point where she actually started house shopping.

"I don't know," Miller said. "I think I'd miss it if I moved."

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka woman Cindy Miller has lived 68 years in her childhood home