The family house is up for sale. The one my mother has lived in for nearly fifty years. It doesn't resemble a homestead; it's not a big rambling farmhouse with a wide porch. It's a sixties bilevel on a busy suburban street in a good school district. It had a large yard, plenty of room for six kids and their friends to play in.
It was my home for about fifteen years. Like most homes, it is a place with a lot of memories. Good and bad.I don't feel sad about losing the place. At least not now. Maybe I will feel differently when the deal is done. Right now it's a bit of an abstraction.
Moving from the house we lived in before that, hundreds of miles away, felt like a loss. Maybe because I was twelve and that was the only place I remembered living in. The choice to move had not been made by me but rather by my father's job transfer. I'm sure my mother was happy to leave that bungalow. Eight of us were living in 800 square feet with one bathroom. Three of my brothers slept in trundles stacked up in a narrow space. The neighborhood was right near the train tracks and some of the kids were well on their way to juvenile delinquency. We walked to school, to the neighborhood candy store, to the library. My grandparents lived nearby. It was a typical idyllic 50s childhood.
Moving to Long Island in the early sixties was a culture shock. This house had new furniture, what was then called a playroom and four bedrooms. The half bath in the laundry room felt like the height of luxury. We were living large.
Moving from this house has been a choice. It was for me when I left. And it is for my mom now. Maybe that's why it's not so difficult.
How about you? Have you left a house behind?
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13 comments:
Yes, I have left a home behind and I think I know what you are experiencing. However, to my surprise, it turned out to be for the best. Hope the same for you.
Thanks, H.l. I think it will be. New adventures!
My parents still live in the house I was born in. I don't even want to think about losing them...and the house. Could I have 2 homes? As for me this is my second home-in a different state-I don't plan on moving anywhere again!
Hi Katreader,
You could definitely have 2 homes. That's the best part!
As a teen, I lived in a small town, in what I considered a large house. I still see it occasionally, fifty years later, and am gobstruck at how small it seems.
Terri, it's not the house, it's the memories. I hope you take a lot of photos.
Since 1988, when I left my parents’ house, I’ve had ten different homes on three continents. I didn’t count the Japanese apartment, because we only lived there a few months, but it sure was a great adventure (especially having to pay utilities in person when we couldn’t even read the statement). I cannot imagine living in the same place for more than a few years. The idea of living in the same house for that long … wow!
I get very attached to places. I was happy when they tore down the first building we lived in, as the thought of someone else living in our apartment seemed wrong. We moved a block away. I adored that apartment from the moment we went inside the first time. It later became a condo and my parents scrapped together the money to buy. When my mother died, I inherited it and have kept it. Every time I go there, it feels like walking into a hug.
Isn't that funny, Ellen? Going back to high school was like that for me.
Lots of memories, Joanna, and lots of pictures. Thanks.
Wow, NL, you win the prize! I guess you learn what to keep when you move so often.
Betty, I know how much you love that Chicago home. By the way, someone at the guild meeting was telling me about getting one of your books as a gift. I was proud to say I knew the author!
We moved when I was nine, and I so did not want to. The house we were in was a little tract home--I shared a bedroom with one sister and was happy to. The new house--well, you've seen it--and how silly of me not to like it, but I didn't and, honestly, I just don't have the warm, fuzzy feelings about it that I still get for the older one. Which I barely remember. Absolutely nothing rational there. For me, it was about change--change I didn't want and hadn't asked for, but which I still ended up getting.
40 years later, I think I've gotten a LITTLE better about it. :)
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