The house I grew up in-Part 4

It seems strange to dedicate a whole post to the bedrooms of my childhood house but since there are many memories there, I guess it is more than just who slept where.

The upstairs was at the top of a longish staircase that had a double railing of heavy wood. The low one was perfect for smaller children and the higher one for adults. From the landing at the top of the stairs, you could see into the dining room on the first floor, living  room and entrance hall o the second floor. It was a great place to yell from when you needed to pass a message along. It was also very convenient to drop the dirty laundry from the landing to the first floor, where it could be taken to the laundry room. There was a door the allowed privacy to the upstairs bedrooms if there was a party below. My parents enjoyed entertaining so this was great to give us some quiet. This door also came in handy at Christmas and Easter time so my parents could do the Santa thing or prevent us from seeing the surprises that waited below.

As a young girl, before my brother was born and a little after, my bedroom was the smallest in the house. It was yellow and next to parent's bedroom. My sisters shared the room next to me. It was a large room with twin beds that slid under bolsters to make them more like couches. The bolster lifted up to hid treasures. Mostly I remember stuffed animals being there. I used to sneak in their room to play. The beds were along intersecting walls and there was a corner table. the end of the bed could slide under the table or not. When it was not, under the table made a great hiding spot. I would take Pinky, a stuffed dog/sheep?, with floppy ears that had soft undersides that were soothing to rub. I still have Pinky but he was never really mine.
There was a closet outside my room that boxes of dolls from the countries my grandfather had visited and Stieff puppets and animals. I guess the Stieff animals were the Beanie babies of the 60's and 70's. You were never supposed to remove the tags and the tags had the animals' names on them.
I remember more about my sisters' room than I do my own. I must have played in there quite a bit.

There was a linen closet next to their room that held crisp white cotton sheets and thin cottons blankets of lavender and yellow. You could get to the attic through this closet. There was another bedroom on the other side of the closet. That would be my sister's room later, then mine as a teen.

The bathroom that we girls shared had two sinks, a laundry hamper built into the vanity, another great hiding place, and large flowers on the medicine cabinets that bookended the vanity. The floor had a random pattern of pink and white tiles. I remember looking for repeating patterns on that floor.

My parents had a large room with a balcony that looked over the back patio. There was a long mirrored wall with a counter where my mom could put on makeup, a sink outside the bathroom where my did could shave while mom was having a shower in the proper bathroom. The ceiling was high and they had a wall unit A/C when the rest of us had to make due with the gigantic ceiling fan in the hall that pulled air in our open windows to cool things somewhat.

My small room had windows that opened up onto the garage room. This was scary at times if you imagined that this would be the entry point of a robber. As I got older, my mother let me have the room painted pink. It was not a mellow pale pink but more the strong pink that was just a shade darker than Pepto Bismol. I think I have a pretty bedspread and curtains. I also remember rearranging my room on a regular basis, by myself, something I must have inherited from my mother. I would sit in my room listening to an Alan Sherman record with a big chunk out of it (I never knew what the first few songs were because of the missing piece), Disney records and any others I could find in my sisters' room.
About this time, my parents had a second telephone line installed in the linen closet. The wire was long enough to stretch to either sister's room. My brother had a room downstairs at this time, lucky boy. My sister would fight over phone use and sometimes it would get ugly.

One sister went to college and there was a room shift. My brother was moved upstairs to the big room. The bolster beds were gone and he had a double bed. I used to stand outside his room and listen to him playing his baseball board game with his imaginary friend Brooksie (he was actually a real friend when my brother was younger but they did not play together much).
My room at this time had a dollhouse. I used to rearange the furniture in there all the time too. I even used to buy dollhouse furniture kits and make them. The attic of the dollhouse was my secret laboratory though. I used to mix "potions" of soap, shampoo, and other things. I am not sure what the goal was but perhaps I should have been a pharmacist.

When the next sister went off to college, I got her room. I loved the built in shelves for my collectables. China animals, novelty candles, my crafts and books filled the shelves. We had the room painted green, bright green and for one wall, I chose a wallpaper with a basket weave pattern and a metallic base. This was my room until I moved out of the house after college.

I remember being locked out of the house after babysitting one night. The dad of the family brought me home and I had no key and no one was home. All the accessible windows were locked too.  I remembered my bedroom window was unlocked but it was on the second floor. The garage with the ladders was locked too. We got a garbage can and flipped it over under my window. I climbed on his shoulders and he climbed onto the garbage can. I opened the window and rolled in. That was the closet I ever came to being in a circus act.

My parents remodeled and my old room became a sitting room off their bedroom. Their once large double closets became a built in dresser with mirrors, the makeup area became a walk in closet and the bathroom was updated, although now I cannot really remember how.

I still have the bedroom furniture my parents had when they got married in the 50's. They used it until they remodeled. It is now my bedroom furniture. I thought I would have updated by now but it is tough to spend money on furniture when what you have works just fine, but may not be the most stylish. It was well build and could use a refinish. I will add that to my list.