When I was about two years old we lived in an upstairs
apartment in Tyler. I can remember wood
floors and watching the TV game show "Concentration" with Mama while
she folded clothes. I remember my
brother Allen being a baby, and I also remember looking out of our second story
window to see the neighbors' children playing in the yard.
I also remember that we shared a bathroom in the hallway
with another family or couple who was living in another apartment. I guess that was a shared duplex. These memories are sketchy at best.
After that we moved to Willow Branch Road near Van. We always called it the "big house"
because it was a large farmhouse with a long central hallway. During the winter, which was really cold the
year I turned three, Daddy and Mama moved all of us into the kitchen and living
room in an attempt to stay warmer.
My brother and I had some good times in that house. The bedroom at the back of the house became
our playroom with nothing in it but our toys.
It seemed huge to us. There was a
large cardboard box that we were supposed to keep our toys in, but we had to be
careful digging into it or we would fall in! Usually it tipped over so we could access our toys.
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| My brother Allen and me. People thought we were twins. |
The old house had hardwood floors and a long hallway perfect
for riding tricycles or pulling our wagon.
One year I received a tiny china tea set from a great aunt and I would
arrange the pieces on the tiny tray and carry them down the hall. One by one those pieces fell off the tray and
broke. No matter how careful I tried to
be, my three-year-old hands couldn't hold it steady enough. it made me sad.
My brother and I shared the middle bedroom which had walls
covered with peeling old wallpaper. We
peeled that paper off slowly when we were supposed to be sleeping or
napping. We would get in so much
trouble, especially when Allen would snicker into his hands cupped over his
mouth and nose. His hands would get dripping
wet, and then Mama would come in and turn him over her knees for a good
spanking. I guess I got spanked, too, but I really don't remember. I didn't get near as many spankings as my brother did.
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| My grandmother on the porch of the big house with Sandy. |
We also had a dog named Sandy, and another one we named
Tarzan-Pinochio. I guess we couldn't
agree on the name. Mama read books to us
all the time. One of my favorites was one which was so politically incorrect that they stopped printing it. Little Black Sambo was the story of a little
black boy who receives new clothes and trades each piece to a different tiger
in exchange for not being eaten. At the
end of the book the tigers chase each other around a tree until they turn into melted
butter. I recently found a copy of the
book in a Louisiana plantation gift shop. It is being printed again!
Such memories. Stay
tuned for more from "the big house."
XOXO
Labels: big house, childhood, Concentration game show, Little Black Sambo, the house that built me
