My bedroom was the smallest of the five and why it was chosen I'll never know because except for my sister, Doris', bedroom in the southwest corner, I could have had my pick. It was the middle room on the south side with a great view looking south in front of our home so I could check the coming and going. Plus, you could see all the way to the corner a quarter mile south where the road that went by our house and the road that went one mile west to highway 14 met.
My room had windows the width of the room with a sitting ledge covered with a soft vinyl covering. It was great for just sitting and looking out or displaying my "collectibles." It was a sunny room with a walk-in closet also with a window to provide light. Also, the closet had 1-inch by 1-inch slats on the upper third of the wall to allow light to go all the way through to the next closet. This home was built at the turn of the century(1900) and they knew what they were doing when there was no electricity.
The solid oak door to my room had a transom above it as all bedrooms did. It had device beside it so you could adjust the glass window above the door to allow air and light to come into the room. It was really cool.
My room was decorated simply. A wood framed double bed with a red cotton looped bedspread, a simple wood nightstand with a plain lamp shade, chest of drawers unfinished and simply clear varnished. Hardwood floor with just two red double loop throw rugs and a metal waste can with college pennants on it.(a collector's item today.) On the wall above the dresser was a paint by numbers cowboy theme wood frame picture. Also, a vinyl covered sling back chair up against one wall. That was about it. Most of my toys were in a northwest bedroom that was primarily used for this and that. Also, some of my prize toy fleet was kept in the kitchen in a lower built-in cabinet.
Unlike kids of today, I also didn't have alot of the tech stuff, sports items and on and on. Plus, in my closet I had maybe a half dozen pants, a few more shirts and no more than three or four pair of shoes. Good dress ones, school shoes, and a pair of tennis shoes.
Yup! Pretty simple. One thing that I did get at one point was an electric blanket. The upstairs was not kept heated in the winter to preserve energy so it got mighty cold on winter nights and on some mornings could see your breath and steam coming off the blanket. You didn't horse around very long getting out of bed in the mornings before racing down-stairs.
It could be a little scary upstairs. There was this time, after my sister, Doris, moved out and before my sister, Deborah, was old enough to move upstairs and have her own bedroom, that I was up there by my little old lonesome!
The stairs to the attic were next to my room. If anyone or ANYTHING would have come down from the attic in the middle of the night, (they never did) I would have been trapped because the stairs to go downstairs were on the other side of the attic stairs and the hallway. I would have been a dead man. At least my sister, Doris, could have made it out alive as she had a straight shot from her room to the stairs down.
Every Saturday I had to clean my room. All clothes were hung up, bed made, floors dusted and throw rugs shook out the window. No "dust bunnies" were allowed to be left under the bed. No sir! Once in a while my mom "the drill sargent" would come up for inspection. I always knew there would be consequences if the room didn't get cleaned. To this day my bed is made each morning. The end.
written originally 2008
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