2009-03-05 ... 5:40 p.m.

previous - next

A day off and some memories

So let's see, what did I do today on my day off?

Breakfast while Pogoing.. always a favorite. Plus it's mindless entertainment not requiring a lot of thought, and I can plan out the rest of my day while I'm doing that.

I got myself together, and went grocery shopping. The cupboards were bare, people. Well, the refrigerator was, anyway.

I went to Henry's first, and stocked up on pluots, ugly fruit, avocados, and lots of other veggie type things. YUM! I also found some trout fillets for $5.99 a pound that looked really good so I got a couple of those.

Next was Von's, for the grocery type things. I refilled one of my big water jugs, and I had a little trouble getting the cap back on, since it's not really a removable cap. I stuck it in the car and went back to the store for the rest.

Nothing real exciting there, I only bought two items that weren't on sale. That's the nice thing about shopping for just me... I can always find something I like that's on sale. My card got me a 31% savings.. too bad I didn't have coupons, but most of the things I buy there are no coupons for.

So I got home, dragged all my stuff into the house, set my big jug of water in the refrigerator, and accidentally hit the cap on the shelf, and the water started pouring out of the container. I lost about a gallon of it... I could only think to myself that it was a Poolie-worthy thing to do. HA!!

I checked my email, and then went to see our own Poolagirl who is now the Boss-Lady at the museum. And no, we didn't have dehydrated chicken for lunch. We had sandwiches at one of the park restaurants. Fun, as usual.

I hopped on the freeway when I was done, and headed off to the mall to exchange a scale I bought that didn't work. And I ran a few other errands, too, as long as I was out. I decided to leave cleaning the house for Saturday when I'm off. Since today was already half gone by the time I got home, I figured then I can spend a whole day on it and maybe get all my stuff put away, and the carpet vacuumed.

I was talking to bluesleepy today and she asked me to write something about when I was a kid. So here goes:

We used to live in a big old farm house on a farm, of course. Dad lived there from age 2 till about age 55.

That's a picture of it from the South side.. There were a lot of bedrooms, 5 upstairs and 2 downstairs, although we didn't use all of them. Upstairs, one was the "jar room" where Mom kept all her canning jars and supplies, and empty containers, and other kitchen junk. One was the "Toy room" which had an extra dresser and a couch kind of thing, and all the extra toys and games and kid kind of junk you accumulate with 5 kids, when you don't ever throw anything out because you just might use it some day.

The kitchen was huge, although when I went back with my sibs to look at the house before the fire department did this to it:

the kitchen no longer seemed that huge. Plus it was jammed full of stuff the current owners were getting rid of, so it was a bit congested.

Anyway, the entire house had wood doors, none of which had been painted.

There were SEVEN of these in the kitchen.... so I guess it was a pretty big room after all. One of them led to the upstairs, where all us kids slept.

I was always the first to go to bed, since I was the youngest. I always went to bed, but I didn't always go to sleep. Some days (the devil made me do it!) I would feel particularly evil, and decide to play a little trick on DSis, who as second youngest, always came upstairs to bed next. It was scary enough to go upstairs at night, since there were strange things living in the attic, and there were NINE of those huge doors in the hallway and you just never knew what was behind any of them, waiting until you walked by.

This is the hallway view in the daylight. I shared a room with DSis, just beyond the chimney that sticks out from the wall on the right.

Some nights, DSis made the fatal error of coming up the stairs in the dark. When I heard the door open downstairs, and no light went on, I knew it was time.. heh. I would jump out of bed, and flatten myself against the wall just behind the chimney.. quietly, like a mouse, I would wait motionless and as silently as possible.

I would hear her hit the top, and make the turn toward our bedroom. A certain number of steps later, and she was just about to the chimney... and I would step out into the hallway and say BOO!!

I didn't ever have to shout it to scare her, because she generally wasn't expecting me to be waiting for her. All I had to do was appear in the hallway, and she would scream in fright! BWaaahhh haaa haaa!!!! Got her again.

Then of course, we would hear the "What's going on up there??!?" and I would snicker and giggle while I jumped back into bed, and leave DSis to say "Nothing!"

So DSis, for all those times I scared you, I can only say, it was one hell of a lot of fun!

Stay tuned... same bat-time, same bat-channel. One never knows when another story might creep up those stairs!

previous - next

Kiss Me!

10 comments so far

bluesleepy - 2009-03-06 02:28:33
What a lovely house you grew up in! I couldn't help but giggle at you teasing DSis like that, but isn't that what a little sister is for??
-------------------------------
Fifi - 2009-03-06 03:22:15
What a wonderful old house! I do rahther wish that I lived in one like that. Beanie, I was out shopping today and a cashier so much reminded me of you. She was so cheerful and knew her stuff. I was extra nice to her and thanked her extraly, because I want the people at the Home Despot to treat you well. Sort of karma-ish. XOFiFi
-------------------------------
Sis - 2009-03-06 04:48:47
Seeing the house brought back bitter-sweet memories! Don't remember you scarring 'D' that way, but I'm not surprised! One of my memories was looking out of the west window of my room and seeing the colored strings of lights across the street in "cowtown" at Christmas time.
-------------------------------
Rosie - 2009-03-06 06:23:26
What a great old house, from the outside it looks a little like mine! What a shame they burned it down, I guess it was too far gone to save? I'd have cried to see that, even if it wasn't my house!
-------------------------------
DSis - 2009-03-06 12:05:06
You were accurate on all those details about the number of doors and such. The "bed-thing" in the toy room was a chaise lounge, and I wish I had that now. It was a classic. I SO remember the you-scaring-me-thing. Only ONE of us thought that was funny. (Heh!) You finally stopped doing that when Dad said I could take a glass of water along and throw it at you if you did it again. I never got the opportunity to do that. I have a bunch of the doors from the house if you ever want one -- you figure how to get it to SD!
-------------------------------
Carolyn - 2009-03-06 12:18:40
I love the photos of your old house. The story of you scaring your sister was wonderful. You're a great storyteller!
-------------------------------
l\'empress - 2009-03-06 13:45:10
In describing your shopping, you reminded me of my mother. She always said, "you have to learn to eat the specials." Some people never learn to do that.
-------------------------------
margie - 2009-03-06 13:45:38
Oh, what a lovely home. And such wonderful memories. It's a shame it was burned. Take up your sister's offer for one of the doors if you can.
-------------------------------
Poolie - 2009-03-06 15:20:02
Cool pictures - and cooler memories.
-------------------------------
terri t - 2009-03-06 19:21:19
I agree with Rosie, what a shame that house couldn't be rehabilitated...it could have been great for a big family. I remember living with an aunt and uncle and the upstairs farm house was a finished attic...no heat but we played up there in the warmer weather...stored all our old comics and toys...I sure wish I had them now!!!!
-------------------------------

Did you miss a piece?

- - 2012-08-23
- - 2012-07-31
- - 2012-07-12
- - 2012-06-27
- - 2012-06-16

design