The house I grew up in- part 3

There are always things about the house you grew up that stick in your memory. When you are young, you don't really think about a house's functionality or livability. As I look back on my memories of 303 Valleyview Garth, I think that it was a perfect house for a family of six.

The fact that the house was a split level made things interesting for us.We used to practice jumping stairs. You knew you were getting braver when you could jump from the entrance hall over the stairs down to the first floor. We were allowed to use the railings, kid rules.

The double front door opened to the entrance hall. The floor was slate and the was a ceiling light that hung from the exposed beams. My mom broke part of the light practicing her tennis serve. It was a good open space to play with tops, or practice roller skating.

Off the main hall was a coat closet with a mirror. It could be called a power room except it did not have a sink or toilet. The large mirror had a shelf in front of it so people could put purses there and find a compact in their purse. One coat closet was small and used for guests to put coats in. The other closet was larger and had shelves on one side where we kept luggage. When I was sad, I would go into the depths of the closet and cry my eyes out. It was comforting somehow being under the coats that smelled like my family. I would stroke the fur coats and sob. The softness made me feel better. I don't know if my parents ever knew that was my hiding spot when I was sad.

Another door off the entrance hall led to the guest room. There was a full bath in there too. That was handy in a house with four kids but we never realized it until we got older. We did not have central air conditioning growing up. The only A/C was a wall unit in my parents room and central air on the middle floor. On hot summer nights, the kids would take turns sleeping in the guest room. I remember one night I awoke for no particular reason. I heard a man's voice say "I love you, Nell" from outside the closed door. I thought it was dad and went to look. There was no one there. I shrugged and I went back to sleep. The next morning, I asked dad why he came down to say that. He told me he did not come down to tell me he loved me. He had slept through the night. I know  I heard it and strangely enough, I was never afraid to be in that room. When friends came to spend the night, we usually hung out in the guest room in sleeping bags.

The living room was open to the big hall. We had family gatherings there. This piano was in there so we had to practice for our lessons there. All the piano music was in a cabinet wall that looked over into the dining room. We would often yell to each other over the cabinet wall down to the family room. Dad had wired the stereo speakers in these cabinets as well, so whatever was playing downstairs, was playing in the living room. Great for weekends when Dad thought we should be awake and he would blast some uplifting get the heck out of bed music. Luckily I was an early riser.

We had a card table there where we learned to play pinochle and hearts. My parents had Bridge night. We were a big card playing family. It was fun. Many times we would move the furniture and stretch or do gymnastics. Looking back, out gymnastics was pretty close to yoga these days without the breath. We played melodicas that my grandfather bought for us in Germany. I think it was supposed to be a special room just for guests because there were times I think we had to ask for permission to be in there. That seems to be a pretty vague memory because of the amount of time we spent in there.
My first kiss was in that room during a truth or dare game. Entertaining was something my parents always encouraged. They never wold let us have alcohol but many of the parties I had were school related or smaller when we did not thing about drinking. We, meaning me and my friends, I can't speak for my siblings.

My mother was always rearranging the furniture in our house and the living room was probably the room that changed the most. The constant of that room was a glass topped coffee table with really sharp edges. Surprisingly, none of us ever got hurt on it. She also bought the longest most comfortable couch ever! We would also sleep there on hot nights if someone had already taken the guest room. Years later, when Mom bought another couch, she had the super long one cut in half and reupholstered. She moved them to the family room. I eventually too them and they moved to Austin with me. I gave them away eventually.