2 Peas Challenge:
Describe your childhood home.
Blog about it, and share some memories...
My parents moved to GA when I was 18 months old. From that time until graduated from college (save 1 year in college and a summer away), I lived in that house.
Being the youngest by such a huge gap (16 years), I was basically an only child, so I had the run of the place from the time I was 7 or 8. It was a 4 bedroom split-level. We had a huge kitchen where we would eat dinner as a family every night. I remember finishing dinner and my sister getting up to make coffee. She would sigh something about "Cinderella" and everyone would laugh. Before my brother and sister moved out, I would sit in the corner of the wrap-around bench that went around our dinner table. So, if I wanted to leave, it was "Just go under, T." And I would.
For a good while, my grandparents lived downstairs from us. My dad converted the garage into an in-law suite, complete with a kitchen. After my grandmother passed away, my grandfather stayed for a while. But taking care of a child and an invalid (my grandfather had a stroke and was paralyzed on the left side of his body) was a bit too much, so my grandfather moved into a nursing home up North near the rest of his children.
Because the house was so big, and Mom and Dad had a pool put in, we had big parties during the summer, and I guess during the winter, too, for that matter. I remember 4th of July parties the best. My brother set up with a band in the living room downstairs. There were people everywhere. Lots of food, lots of friends. It never occurred to me that I was just a little kid. I had fun with all the adults... The barbecue would be going non-stop, there would be watermelon and mile-high cheesecake. My parents' friends taught me stupid cheers "U-G-L-Y- You ain't got no alibi! You Ugly! Uh, Uh! You Ugly!" Or how to do a correct forward crawl in the pool. My brother would dunk me under or do handstands in the deep end, so all I saw were his feet. My sister grabbed me and danced with me. Just so much fun. Then, at night, when everything would quiet down, I would lay in my mom's lap, waterlogged and exhausted. My brother and one of his friends would play their guitars. Everyone sang along, and I would fall asleep to the sound of voices, music, and that gentle squeak guitar strings make as fingers move across them. Content.
Gangsta Mandy and "the Bear" 
Zach, Kharma, and Mandy
