How can you divide a lifetime into "Keep", "Sell", "Donate", and "Trash"? It's proving to be almost impossible.
3346 is so much more to me...to all of us...than bricks and mortar. It's our childhood. It's our past. It's the canvas to so much of our shared story. It's our home.
I have so many, many memories...
- Sledding down the slope of the driveway that runs down along the side of the house thinking it was Mt. Everest.
- The "forest" in the back of the yard that I was afraid Indians would come out of and attack Dad while he worked in the garden.
- Taking a walk around "the circle" and thinking it was a big adventure.
- Mom standing in the hallway leading to our bedrooms saying our nightly prayers.
- Hennessey
- Christmas dinners.
- Sharing a bedroom with Mary Beth and then Patti.
- Running over the mailbox with the lawnmower.
- Memorial Day picnics.
- Crab feasts in the backyard.
- Dad feeding all the birds for miles and miles.
- The rainbow painted on my bedroom wall.
- Sleeping out in the backyard.
- The huge Christmas wreath that hung in our front window.
- Dad using scaffolding to put Christmas lights on the two front pine trees.
- Patti and I using that scaffolding for "gymnastics lessons."
- The four of us walking to the top of the neighborhood to wait for Dad to come home from his business trips.
- Family dinners.
- Raking leaves...lots and lots of leaves.
- Dad making built-in cabinets out of old church pews.
- Our little log cabin playhouse.
- Sneaking out my bedroom window.
- Dad putting salt blocks out for the deer.
- Tree forts.
- Snowmen wearing grass skirts.
- Doodles
And the list could go on and on...
There has been positively no acrimony in the division of Mom and Dad's possessions. Absolutely none. I know Mom and Dad would expect nothing less.
What I realize is that we really haven't been dividing up "things"...we've been dividing up memories. You know, more like...Is it okay if I take Dad's favorite coffee mug?...Does anybody care if I take Mom and Dad's Nativity set?...Oh, I remember Dad wearing this hat to every Colt game. Can I have it?
There was a time when I thought I would buy Mom and Dad's house when I was a "grown up". Now that I am a grown up (sort of) I find I don't really want the house. It's just that I really don't want anyone outside the family to have it either.
I haven't lived at 3346 for more than 25 years. It doesn't matter. It's still home. It always has been. It always will be. And, right now, I'm terribly homesick.
4 comments:
TJ you brought tears to my eyes with this post. I hope each of you Waters children know you are blessed to have such memories. I remember the coffee table with the ceramic tiles, the basket tree, the Jewel Tea dishes in the china closet, the picnic Uncle Bill Kircher disturbed a hornet's nest trying to catch a softball and paid dearly with several stings. I remember when leaving your house and when reaching the circle, would quickly circle around, then pretend once was enough and then circle around again and my kids would laugh and say do it again. Take your memories, tuck them into a safe place and know you all were very blessed.
Aunt Paula
Aunt Paula,
Thank you so much for sharing your memories from 3346. I have been flooded with memories lately and I find them all so incredibly comforting.
I agree with you. My siblings and I were/are extremely blessed.
Love you.
TJ
I remember your dad raking leaves in a red and black checked flannel shirt, me and Don helping him, and thinking when I grow up I'm going to have a house and rake leaves in a red and black checked flannel shirt just like Uncle Don.
Today, I have the house and the shirt! And I effing hate raking leaves! Haha!
Good memories, TJ.
It's too funny, Michael. When I read your comment I could picture Dad perfectly in the black and red checked flannel shirt.
Now, to quote Dad, "If you and Rachel work together you can have this whole yard raked in 15 minutes!"
At least that's the line of bull Dad used to try and feed his 4 kids!
Hope all is well. Love to you and Rachel.
TJ
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