In which Sarah reminisces about childhood
I'm at my grandparents' for the second time this summer. They're moving to a retirement community in a couple weeks, and we came earlier to help them sort our things, and now to help them move things. It's going to be sad to leave this house and to say good-bye to all the memories and things.
We went swimming tonight even though it was quite chilly because we never will again. Karen taught me to dive off the edge of that pool when I was in second grade, and then I wrote about it at school. We named inflatable animals after pokemon and we jumped off the diving board past noodles in the water to prove who was better. Summer was an endless stream of pool water, air conditioning, wet towels on the floor, and lemonade pops, interspersed with arguments about gameboy games.
We wrote a "family newspaper" which we tried to sell to our parents and aunts and uncles for ten cents apiece. I don't remember how we planned to share the money among six cousins. It's funny, because the little boys are ten years old now, and Ella-belle is five, but they don't really figure into my memories. I remember sharing a room with Onion and swapping school stories. I always asked him about girls. I dunno why.
I remember playing monopoly with Jake there being a dumb joke about winning the lottery, which turned into my brother making the joke every time anyone asked for a napkin at dinner, which really ticked me off after a while.
I remember starting this LJ account at the bar in the basement.
I remember sleeping on the blue-checked couch in the basement and having a stress dream before school stared the summer before second or third grade. Only it was a stress dream like I wanted to go back...
I remember climbing the apple tree and sitting on the branch that makes a square turn, and singing Zippity-do-da for ages and ages just because I'd been taught the words at school.
I remember dinners and game nights in the dining room, deciding in Balderdash that a bellonian is "an ancient person obsessed with sauteeing veggies", and learning to play Farkle.
I remember hearing about Grandma and K making Thanksgiving dinner at some wee hour of the morning and totally losing their minds because it was late and everything was funny, and there was cheesecloth.
I remember playing "bunking burrito" (bucking bronco) with Beege, and I remember Ev playing "ga-a-goo" (basketball) in the family room when there was still green carpet. I remember vacuuming the green carpet every day until they finally tore it out and put in nice hardwood. I remember the fruit-scented candle that looked like fruit in a jar too, and I remember lighting fires and burning good smelling cinnamon things in it.
I remember all the "swirly baths" in the jacuzzi tub, when we were small enough that the jets would actually swirl us around, and I remember flooding that bathroom with bubbles and shampoo and bath salts and whatever else we could find that would make a mess. Not usually on purpose, but you know how kids are. Just a couple Christmases ago I sat in that tub for hours because I was so ill.
I remember playing house and taking the dolls for walks around the front yard and in the garage. I remember when there were two twin beds in the corner bedroom and I used to swing between them like parallel bars. I remember when Kim took one bed and the "youth bed" from the basement, and we moved the other twin bed down there. A couple days ago, they sold that bed right out from under me, and yesterday we loaded it into the lady's truck.
It's time for my grandparents to leave this house, and I won't really mourn it or anything. But everyone has come here this summer to say good-bye and to help clear it out, and I haven't seen Kim or Karen's families at all. It's just another part of growing up that I'm not wrapping my mind around well.
Ella-belle and Mags are going to remember this move as I remembered the move here. Maybe. How should I know. I remember a lot of things about the old house, too, but they're for another time. I just needed to ramble tonight.
-fin-
We went swimming tonight even though it was quite chilly because we never will again. Karen taught me to dive off the edge of that pool when I was in second grade, and then I wrote about it at school. We named inflatable animals after pokemon and we jumped off the diving board past noodles in the water to prove who was better. Summer was an endless stream of pool water, air conditioning, wet towels on the floor, and lemonade pops, interspersed with arguments about gameboy games.
We wrote a "family newspaper" which we tried to sell to our parents and aunts and uncles for ten cents apiece. I don't remember how we planned to share the money among six cousins. It's funny, because the little boys are ten years old now, and Ella-belle is five, but they don't really figure into my memories. I remember sharing a room with Onion and swapping school stories. I always asked him about girls. I dunno why.
I remember playing monopoly with Jake there being a dumb joke about winning the lottery, which turned into my brother making the joke every time anyone asked for a napkin at dinner, which really ticked me off after a while.
I remember starting this LJ account at the bar in the basement.
I remember sleeping on the blue-checked couch in the basement and having a stress dream before school stared the summer before second or third grade. Only it was a stress dream like I wanted to go back...
I remember climbing the apple tree and sitting on the branch that makes a square turn, and singing Zippity-do-da for ages and ages just because I'd been taught the words at school.
I remember dinners and game nights in the dining room, deciding in Balderdash that a bellonian is "an ancient person obsessed with sauteeing veggies", and learning to play Farkle.
I remember hearing about Grandma and K making Thanksgiving dinner at some wee hour of the morning and totally losing their minds because it was late and everything was funny, and there was cheesecloth.
I remember playing "bunking burrito" (bucking bronco) with Beege, and I remember Ev playing "ga-a-goo" (basketball) in the family room when there was still green carpet. I remember vacuuming the green carpet every day until they finally tore it out and put in nice hardwood. I remember the fruit-scented candle that looked like fruit in a jar too, and I remember lighting fires and burning good smelling cinnamon things in it.
I remember all the "swirly baths" in the jacuzzi tub, when we were small enough that the jets would actually swirl us around, and I remember flooding that bathroom with bubbles and shampoo and bath salts and whatever else we could find that would make a mess. Not usually on purpose, but you know how kids are. Just a couple Christmases ago I sat in that tub for hours because I was so ill.
I remember playing house and taking the dolls for walks around the front yard and in the garage. I remember when there were two twin beds in the corner bedroom and I used to swing between them like parallel bars. I remember when Kim took one bed and the "youth bed" from the basement, and we moved the other twin bed down there. A couple days ago, they sold that bed right out from under me, and yesterday we loaded it into the lady's truck.
It's time for my grandparents to leave this house, and I won't really mourn it or anything. But everyone has come here this summer to say good-bye and to help clear it out, and I haven't seen Kim or Karen's families at all. It's just another part of growing up that I'm not wrapping my mind around well.
Ella-belle and Mags are going to remember this move as I remembered the move here. Maybe. How should I know. I remember a lot of things about the old house, too, but they're for another time. I just needed to ramble tonight.
-fin-