Thursday, April 22, 2010

Closets

On Tuesday I was helping Mom out by cleaning her house while she was stripping wallpaper at their new house.

"New house?" you might ask? It's official. Daddy Steve and Namaw closed on a house this past Monday. Mike, the boys, and I are super excited about it. Why? Because you can almost see their new house from our front yard! We can either walk the sidewalks 1 block to their house or we can walk across the street and across a short part of the greenbelt and be at their front door! Brody excitedly talks about how he can't wait to be able to walk over to Daddy Steve and Namaw's house again (remember when we lived in the rent house down the street from them the first year we were back in Texas? Well Brody has never forgotten and always begs to move back there so he can walk to Daddy Steve and Namaw's house again!) We're very excited for our boys. Can you imagine how fun it would be to grow up down the street from your grandparents? Especially grandparents as fun as Daddy Steve and Namaw? It's exciting to think about the memories that are yet to me made.

We also have some good friends from our small group (Joseph & Anna) that bought a house 1.5 blocks from us. Brody and Autumn (their daughter) are good friends and Brody is over the moon that both Autumn and Daddy Steve & Namaw are moving on the same weekend to our neighborhood! Just look at what Caleb & Audria started (they're the ones that moved to this area first and are a big part of the reason we choose to live in this neighborhood)!

Back to the reason for this post (at this point you may be wondering why it's titled "Closets").

As I said, on Tuesday I cleaned house for Mom. As I was sweeping the floors I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. Growing up it was my responsibility to clean the downstairs. In high school I wasn't allowed to go hang out with my friends on a Friday night unless I had the downstairs cleaned. Mom may remember differently, but I don't recall complaining about this...it was just one of my chores and I knew I had to get it done before I could go have fun. I'm a creature of habit. Once I figure out a good method for doing something, I rarely change it. As I picked up the broom on Tuesday to sweep the kitchen, I automatically started sweeping in the same pattern I've always used. (Sweep everything under the table towards the walls, then sweep along the walls towards the cabinets, then sweep from the dining room towards the middle of the kitchen, etc). One thing that I have learned with age is what to do with that line of dust that you just can't seem to get in the dust pan. I remember very vividly that I used to just sweep it back under the counters (shhhhh! Don't tell my mom!). I've since learned that a wet paper towel does the trick of actually picking up the dust.

While I was cleaning I was thinking about all the memories we have made in that house. We moved there when I was 6 years old (Tyler was only 18 months old), so it is the house that we grew up in. All our memories of new friends, summer swim parties, and first dates are there. So are memories of watching TGIF with my family on Friday nights (instead of going out with friends), Christmas mornings, and slumber parties. Our house was the one that everyone hung out at during high school (for both me and my brothers) and we had more family gatherings there than you could count.

As I was sweeping the entry, I swept by the coat closet. I opened it and took a breath. I was overwhelmed by the sent of cedar with a little hint of old blankets. I was also flooded with memories. This is the closet where blankets for movie watching are stored. Long ago there was a soft (I mean really soft. Softer than the softest stuffed animal your kids have) blue blanket that we would lay out on the floor and all of us would lay on/under. Dad also used to store his back jack in there...the one that he used while we watched movies (that way he could put the bowl of popcorn on the floor and sit on the floor beside it while us kids would all lay around the bowl...I understand now why it's not comfortable for an adult to lay on their belly to watch an entire movie!) The coat closet housed coats, of course...but I really don't have many memories about hanging coats here. I do, however, have a lot of memories of this closet as our tornado shelter. Many nights (remember, I grew up in Tornado Alley!) Dad would take all the coats out of the closet and lay them across the dining room table...just in case we needed to get inside the closet. Looking inside the closet now, I'm glad that we won't all have to fit in there as grown ups. I might have easily protected a couple and their 3 small children, but I don't think it would fit 5 grown adults!

I remember one time that all the coats were pulled out of the closet, but the closet still looked too small for the group needing shelter. Mike was the youth intern at church and we had the junior high group over at Dad & Mom's house! We were very thankful that the tornado skipped over our part of town (it did, however, destroy downtown Ft. Worth and other parts of the Metroplex).

I don't know that we every had to get in the closet for a storm. There were many times that it was readied...and probably a few times that I went ahead and got in the closet (I wasn't a big fan of storms growing up), but I don't ever recall having our family of 5 in the closet with the door closed. I'm glad that never happened!

My memories of the inside of the coat closet are the result of games of hide-and-seek or sardines. Since the blankets were stored in there, it was a good place to hide (under the blankets). Brody and Barrett still use that closet to hide in while we're playing.

As I shut the closet door and went back to cleaning house, I thought about how sad I'll be the day that they hand the keys over to the new owner (once they have a buyer...interested parties leave a comment). Have you seen Father of the Bride II? You know the part where it's moving day? They are moving away from the home the kids grew up in. As they put their arms around each other and look back one last time...there's a rainbow in the sky above the house and the house looks like it's glowing! As excited as I am about my parents moving down the street from us, I know I'll have that "Father of the Bride II" feeling as they leave the old house for the last time.

Don't worry...there will be more nostalgic posts to come...

5 comments:

Leave It To Davis said...

I feel the same way about Nanmamma and Daddy C's house on 7th street. It is really hard passing by and not being able to run up to the door, open it and yell hello to find which room holds my grandparents. They had the neatest closets in the universe....one under the stairs that led from one bedroom to the bathroom, and one over the front porch....pint size door, but it was still storage space. She had the most wonderful comforters in the world! They would vie for the softest blanket in the world title with your blanket. The houses might be owned by someone else now, but the memories are ours to keep for a lifetime.

Jennifer said...

When I was a freshman in college, my parents moved from the house we'd lived in since I was one. Except they moved 7 hrs. away to Iowa! My brothers were both engaged and getting ready to start their own lives. I, however, wasn't even dating Aaron and let's just say I didn't handle the news/move very well. It took me a couple years to "get over it". So many things were hard about it, probably the biggest being that instead of 'home' being an hour away, it was now a huge 7 hour drive. But I'm glad they moved...it's been really good for them and the gas plant where my dad worked for 20 years closed just a couple years after they moved (Dad saw the writing on the wall). I still get a little sad when we drive by our old house (all our extended family still lives back 'home').

Ann Hastings said...

We're also really sad they're leaving the house we all have so many memories, but we're happy that they're moving so close to y'all!
It'll be a really sad day when they pack up and leave, that's for sure!
That house is the first place I met your parents, where we went the moment after we got engaged, I could go on and on and I've only been in the family short of 4 years!

Paula said...

Ok I'm sitting here with a lump in my throat. Can't believe it's actually going to happen.

On the other hand, I grew up within walking distance of my grandparents. What a special blessing to spend 5 minutes or an hour with them-- With no parents around.

Steve and Joan said...

A lady came to look at our house today and told the real estate agent "it just didn't feel like home." No kidding! The new house feels exactly the same way. It won't feel like home until I hear Joan's laughter in the kitchen, see Staci, Caleb, and Tyler at the same table playing a silly game and laughing together. Maybe when I get to wrestle with Brody and Barrett on the floor or we all find a spot to play football or baseball in the yard. Maybe when we put up the Christmas tree... but right now I agree with the lady. Little by little, it will become home and we will make many memories there.