During our Monday morning talk last week someone mentioned how we would
sleep on the deck that was over the garage.
There was a door from the formal dining room that opened onto the
deck. I think that part of the deck had a
roof over it, but most of it was just open to the sky. I remember on one morning waking up and my
eyes were almost swollen shut. Mom and
dad thought it was because I had been bitten by spiders during the night. I only remember sleeping out there with the
either Van or Alice. I remember that
there was a metal handrail around the outside and where the metal was anchored
into the cement was a yellow material.
Why do we remember such strange little pieces of information? Another memory of the house and yard were the
big lilac bushes on the south of the house.
When they were in bloom they had a lot of purple flowers and were very
fragrant. I think mom would cut some and
put them in a vase sometimes. Van
remembers if you were really bad dad would cut a switch from the bushes and you
would get you behind swatted. I must
have been too young for a proper spanking because I don’t have any memories of
ever getting spanked with a switch from the lilac bushes. My first memory of Gar was playing in the
back yard with everyone and he was trying to teach me to tell time. He went into the house and got a clock that
must have had a battery and we were lying on the grass on the slope going north
and he explaining how to tell time. Well
I just I wanted to run around and play with everyone and he was so disgusted
with me that I didn’t want to learn how to tell time. I couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 because
he left on his mission when I was 7.
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ReplyDeleteYou are right about the layout of the deck. The yellow material was sulpher or some compound including sulpher. I remember Dad telling me about it. When the deck surface was poured he put pop bottles in where the railing posts would later go. Then, after the concrete was completely cured he broke out the pop bottles and secured the posts with the liguid sulpher compound which set very hard as it cooled.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember that much of the surface of the deck was very rough where the top layer of cement has broken away exposing the aggregate (gravel)? Dad was really upset with the contractor who had poured the deck. Of course, the surface breaking away occurred months or even years after the contractor had been paid.
I don't remember switches but I remember Mom's big wooden hairbrush which doubled as a paddle to be used on disobedient children like myself.