A few delicious factors led Joyce and Tom Panage to purchase a home on the corner of 46th and Fremont on a summer day in 1953. This is their story, as told by Joyce:
“It was a Sunday in August 1953. We were going to Tom’s folks’ for Sunday dinner. At the time we were living in an apartment in Ladd’s Addition, so we came from Ladd’s, winding our way north. It was hot, hot, hot! So we stopped at Rose’s Ice Cream, which was originally on Fremont, where Grand Central Bakery is today. It was in a different building of course, a small building with a parking lot around it. So we drove up to Rose’s and bought two ice cream cones. Tom said, ‘These are going to melt in the car. We’d better find a shady place to park.’ So we pulled onto 46th and parked under that maple tree across the street–it was still there in 1953. We parked in the shade of that maple tree and finished our ice cream before it melted on our laps. Then Tom pointed directly across the street and said, ‘Look Joyce, there’s a house for sale.’ I said, ‘Gosh Tom, I don’t know. It looks too big!’ Two bedrooms and we hadn’t started a family yet; we’d only been married two years. But Tom persisted, so we went inside to have a look. A really nice realtor greeted us and told us to come on in. I remember it smelled divine because there was a pot roast in the oven. And everything was so neat. The family had four children, and their beds were all made, boots and rubbers all were in line…I thought that if they kept the house so immaculate, they probably took good care of it, too. We were excited at the thought of living there. Coming from an apartment it seemed like a hotel! We talked to the realtor for a bit. She told us the price, and we made an offer. Then Tom gave her his folks’ phone number, and we left for Sunday dinner. We visited with his parents a while, had dinner, and then the telephone rang. Tom’s father said, ‘Tom, you’d better answer that. It’s probably for you.’ We picked up the phone and the realtor said, ‘You are now the owner of the house on 46th!’ That was a serendipitous Sunday afternoon. Rose’s ice cream was such a landmark back then. But because of those ice cream cones, and because of the heat, and the maple tree that’s still there, I’m here. I love to tell this story. It’s the story of how two ice cream cones bought a house!”
Tom and Joyce raised two children in their house on 46th (now in their fifties with children of their own). No original neighbors remain, although many are dear in memory. Today, Joyce continued, “We have wonderful neighbors in the condominium next door, another couple who built a lovely home across the street, and a young couple next door with young children. The street is full of wonderful people.”
Joyce is still active as a deacon at Calvary Presbyterian Church on 71st and Fremont. She volunteered for 40 years in ICU and trauma at Emanuel Medical Center helping families under stress—some of whom, she recalls, were there for months. “I love to help people. Sometimes it was just a hug. Other times we would go down in the chapel and pray.” Joyce also served on the Beaumont School PTA.
Joyce laughed, “Of course if Tom would have listened to me, then maybe we wouldn’t be here today. I told him it was too large, way beyond our needs!” But of course, she added, their experience in Beaumont-Wilshire was a wonderful start for their life together as homeowners in this friendly NE neighborhood.