The topic this week: a room within my childhood home.

I can see the living room with the leather chairs that had the sheepskin throws on them, the leather couch, and te TV which we used to watch Sesame Street. I can also see our old coffee table with the slats to hold magazines underneath. At night, Mom used to read to us with one of us in the “nest” between her and the couch and the other one on her other side. It seems that she read to us every night without fail. Against the back wall was the fish tank.

Later, the leather couch and chairs were replaced by white loveseats and a white couch from some Danish furniture store and the coffee table disappeared. The TV was moved into another room and the fish tank was moved into a different position where it is now. I have memories of sitting on them and reading or sitting and doing my homework there in middle school and high school. The piano also replaced the fish tank against the wall and the fish tank was moved to enclose a coffee table. It’s the current layout of the room but it hasn’t changed in 25 years.

When I was home this last weekend, two of my parents’ cats would jump up on the back of the couch to be brushed, sitting on one of the afghans I had gifted them with over the last 10 years. I fell asleep on the couch on Saturday and woke up to find Daniel asleep on the floor on one of the afghans that my mom had put in front of the fireplace. It brought back memories of the times in college when I would be home for whatever reason and fall asleep reading there.

Now go see Becky and what memories everyone else has of a place in their childhood home.