In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep

The Essential Billy Joel












Some people mark time by age, girl/boyfriends, world events. My father marks time by cars. My birth is associated by owning a 60-something Dodge. It means, for him that my birth date has a range of about five years.



I mark time by living quarters. I have lived in twenty different locations.


In all of those, four have been houses. I believe houses are over rated. Sure, when they’re yours you don’t have to consider the paint color, where you’re putting up the pictures, and in our last endeavor we even put in a window. But there also the leaking roofs, pipes and various other issues that make me say, they are just not worth it.


I did love the first house though. This was Grandmother’s house, inhabited by me for approximately the first six or seven years of my life. The house was HUGE. An old duplex.


The entry way was double doors, a little four foot entrance and another set of double doors. This led you to the main hallway and master stairway upstairs. This front hall has to have been about 15 feet in length and doubled as a library as it was lined with bookcases.


My recollection of the house is not really that it was big, but as an adult when I recall the furniture, I know it must have been. As this front hall contained four bookcases before one hit the doorway to the rest of the house.


This door opened to the dining room, which connected to living room on the left (front of the house) by an arch way. I remember the dining room table, centered in the room, of course, having room for 6. Plus room for breakfront and side tables around the perimeter. The living room always held sofa, two chairs, three side tables, television and upright piano. But nothing in front of a window! How did one reach the window if there was something in front of it? The feature of the living room, though was a bay window with bench. Always filled with plants. We had no cats when I was young.


Off the back of the dining room were two doors. The one on the left led to what we called at first the office, then the den, then became my Grandmother’s bedroom when she couldn’t make the stairs. It too was a good size room, but off that, in back was a room of approximately 5 feet by 10 feet. Then it was a sewing, storage, junk area, but what a grand walk in close that would have made? Also off this room was the door to the side porch. A most favorite place of mind at three.


The door on the right led to the kitchen. Eat in, of course and with a full bath off of it. The kitchen also housed the stairway to the basement and a stair way to the back hall with a back stairway.


Upstairs there was another kitchen about half the size of the main floor. I never did understand the logic of this. We again, used it like a hallway, as off this room was a good sized bedroom and hallway. In the remainder of the upstairs were two more good size bedrooms and another full bath.


Now… this house happened to be a duplex, so take a mirror image of this and attached it, and that was the house. In all my life with this house, we always rented the “other half” upstairs. This was a grand adventure. There was the charming man who I remember baby sitting for me for some occasion, but later we were told he was arrested for something dreadful. I liked him. Then there was the young man who painted the entire room black, ceiling included. Do you know how long it takes to white wash black? Even all these years and I still recall that clearly.


We lived in the down stairs “other half” for a while, then moved into the “real” half and rented the “other half” downstairs. Mostly I remember odd little snips of this house, that I am sure are filled with the nostalgia of youth. I remember walking into the kitchen and being filled with the smell of fresh cut grass and summer. I remember watching rain fall on the street out front and thinking it looked like millions of ballerinas. They are the memories of childhood.


Unfortunately, when my grandmother died, it was decided that we couldn’t afford to keep the house. It sold for $24,000.00. It was a long time ago. I remember it though, as at the time I thought that was a lot of money.