Monday, November 19, 2012

Back Down Memory Lane

As I approach the place where my old house once stood, a flood of memories came rushing back to me like a river. I calmly walked up the driveway and almost  instantly, I was back in my old house.

I woke up to the smell of Window Cleaner and Febreeze. As I got out of the bed, I could faintly hear gospel music, 95.7 was her favorite station, especially on Sundays. The sound of sweeping and humming buzzed around me like a swarm of bees.

“Mom”, I said, “why do you always clean stuff?”

“Because, honey, I don’t like dust bunnies”.

My feeble five year old mind thought that actual bunny rabbits were in my home. I always loved playing cleaning detective, so I put on some gloves and slid my finger across the table she’d just finished cleaning. The cleaning was very legit.

“I’m a little acorn nice and round, I live all way down in the ground”.

My tone def voice was lingering all around the  laundry room. The laundry was going and it smelled of fresh flowers on a spring morning. I was sitting on top of the dryer just singing like my heart depended on it. I never knew why I used to sing in there, but soon would find out.

“ Why are you yelling like a mad man?” My mom always asked me.

“I’m not yelling, I’m singing!”

“Well go sing somewhere else, I am doing laundry.” I could tell my mom was getting annoyed.

“ Is that why they call it a Laundry Room, mommy?”

“For a seven year old girl, you ask a load of questions.”

 

“Hey you guys, you want to see something cool?”

I went and got a cover and turned on the air. My cousin and brother tagged along.I put the cover oer the vent on the floor and the cover puffed up like a homemade popcorn top. We all got under the cover and started playing hand games, Wrestle Mania, and started to create our own club. We were the Popcorn Kids. When we all got together, we ate popcorn in our clubhouse, which was the cover. I never met nine year olds who did this but it was kind of cool.

Remembering and seeing this made my body shiver with happiness and sadness. I had all my childhood memories there and to leave that all behind in one house made a soft spot in my heart. Growing up made me realize that we all have to grow up sometime and have to move on and do bigger and better things. I finally knew that the Childhood chapter was done and it was time for something more mature. As fast as I was in the house, I was out of it in a jiffy, getting back into the car, and driving with a single tear.