A Old House...

When I was 3 we moved into a old house just up the hill from the house Critter was born in (and now lives in). Its a old house, built back in the 1800's... I don't know the exact date. To me it was a wonderland from the start. Sitting on top of the highest hill in the neighborhood, three quarters of the block was my yard. It was made of large contoured cinder block, my bedroom was round, inside and outside and I could turn 9 cartwheels across my bedroom floor when I was 10 or so. Big rooms, high ceilings, pocket doors that opened up the whole front of the house... dirt walled basement, complete with an area for coal that could be dropped in from a shoot at the back of the house. This area of the basement was "off limits". I can only imagine it was a foot or so deep with soot, but that never really occurred to me when I was little. I just knew it was a very dark corner, and I wasn't allowed. The coal furnace was gone by the time Critter and I met up. But it was there when we moved in and the first winter they dropped a load of coal into that corner. I realize I was 3, but I remember that.

I have a picture... I'll post it as soon as I find it.

Going into the basement was an adventure in itself, opening that door in the hall (that had a pane of glass in it, yes an interior door with a window) you stood at the top of some crazy leaning wooden steps, that were as solid as rock I tell ya, but you wouldn't believe it by looking at them. A brick wall to the right with some 2X4's nailed into it, that only Daddy was allowed to climb. The attic was unfinished and the 12 or so years I lived there, never once was I up there. Tho I believe Critter and I talked about it from time to time we never got more then one or two of those 2X4's behind us. That brick wall made a sharp turn about 2 feet from the bottom of the stairs and went straight to the back wall of the coal storage, then wrapped back around to within 2 feet or so of the stairs. The whole front of that "room" was open, I believe at one time there was a large tarp that hung there (to keep the dust down) but that was gone after that first winter. So what you saw walking those steps was old old brick, and a 2 foot walkway from the bottom of the stairs past the very dark coal room. About 12 feet or so of just pitch black even with the light on.

The rest of the walls were just dirt. It was hard dirt and never leeked any water. Daddy was a "tinker'er" (is that a word?), and his 'shop' was in the basement, so I spent many hours down there. It was so cool in the summer, and freeze your ass off cold in the winter. Daddy tried several times to enclose his little area on the other side of the coal storage wall. But it never lasted very long... ah, but that is another story all its very own.

Critter and I spent a lot of time down there ourselves. It was the perfect place for two kids to be by themselves. Since no one in my family liked going in the basement (except Daddy, and he didn't count), we could do pretty much what we wanted. We searched the dirt walls for a soft spots... knowing there just HAD to be buried treasure in there somewhere. And even BURIED stuff in those walls, tho I can not remember what it was we put in there... Critter? do you remember?

I can see now that I'm not going to be able to tell this story in one post...

So I'll end for the moment with, Critter... were you ever scared in that house? Cause I never was. I was protected in that house. That house kept me safe from any harm that could come to a small child. There is a reason for that feeling and I'll try my best to explain it to you. But it will have to be in another post.