Rainy Monday and a 2Peas Chellenge...

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.