Mid-week Memes

It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for me to visit Joyce and Patrice to participate in their little mid-week Q&A session. Perhaps, you’ll wanna tag along, too.

First, let head to Joyce’s place. You can find her questions here to grab & answer, then link your Wednesday Hodgepodge URL at From This Side of the Pond. Now, here is my response to this week’s 8 questions…

1. Aloha! On August 21, 1959 Hawaii officially became a US state. Have you ever been? Upon arrival would you prefer an orchid or a hibiscus to tuck behind your ear? Naturally, a hibiscus!

 

 

2. Since we’re talking tropical…what’s your favorite food or beverage made with pineapple?

 

3. Do you believe in soul mates? Explain.  At one time, I think I would have said yes. The truth of the matter is my thinking now on this is, becoming soul mates is an evolutionary process of a good relationship. Just think about it for a minute. When you’re happy together, then you quite naturally want to find common interests to keep up that close togetherness bond. Nurturing a relationship to this stage takes a lot of TLC. Anything worth doing is worth doing well!

4. Share a memory about the house you grew up in. Snuggled in the coal fields of WV a good deal of the homes remaining are those left from large coal company housing. My childhood home was one of these. In 1970, my dad paid $1000 for a small seven room house, which consisted of three bedrooms one resembled a walk in closet than an actual bedroom, a kitchen/dining room, living room, & a bathroom. Looking back, I realize the house I live in now is actually larger than the one I grew up in and I consider this place very quaint. Of course, as a kid I thought nothing of how small our house was because everyone lived in similar dwellings.

That closet size bedroom belonged to my brother and me for years. The people who owed the house before added this room on and actually put in a built-in bunk bed. This should give you an idea of just how small that room was because as long as typical twin mattress is pretty much matches the width of that room. It was a pretty cool bed, though and it looked really nice. They put a large drawer underneath the bed and that’s where we put our toys. At nights my brother and I would lay at opposite ends of the bed and put our feet together, then we’d pretend we were driving a car – accelerating or braking wildly in the dark. I never once remember Mom calling us down for that. Just as long as we were in bed, she must have known we’d soon be asleep while she tended her evening chores.

It’s kinda funny in that closet size bedroom it had a closet. On the other side of the room was a closet that was as wide as the bunk bed. It so happened to be the biggest closet in the whole house, too. The smallest room with the biggest closet.

 

One of my favorite things about the entire house was in the bathroom. We had one of those old fashion ball & claw bath tubes. I enjoyed many long hot soaks in that tube as a kid. In fact, I had fallen asleep in it, too. But, for two small children such as my brother and I who often bathed together, we would pretend we were in a great big ocean diving for sunken treasure or something else equally elaborate. We could stay in there happily forever if Mom would have allowed it.

Showers weren’t common in most homes, but we did get a portable shower installed in the furnace room eventually. Daddy would bath there after coming in from his shift at the mines. We always wanted to take our baths in the shower, but it was too cold to do this in the winters. The furnace room was actually frigid unless you were standing in front of the open door. In the summer, the furnace room was too hot.

There was nothing special about the house, except for the people who lived in it – my parents and younger brothers (one blood brother and one adopted brother) and baby sister. My brother from birth died in 2006. I think often about simpler times that we shared together and this is how I best remember him…us growing up in that little coal miner’s shack house.
5. Are you comfortable with silence? I enjoy a certain amount of silence. I guess it’s largely due to having the kids 24/7 as a home educator. For the last 24 years I’ve done nothing, but breathe and live children with little to no time to myself. This seems like an exaggeration, but it’s really not. Our parents do not live in the area, so we did not have the leisure of instant babysitters and being as paranoid as we are then we never felt comfortable getting a babysitter. We accepted this and enjoyed being with our kids and taking them everywhere with us. Parents do need a break, though. I’m finding now with one kiddo in the house the quiet moments when they do come is rather nice. So, yes I’m comfortable with silence.

6. You spot a giant spider on your bedroom wall…what’s your next move? (all spiders are giant, right?)  I scream. Nah, shivers may run up and down my spine for a split second before I jump into action. The first thing I do is grab something I can put over it to keep it from getting away. Then, if it’s a giant spider I’ll find a shoe to whack it with. I have no mercy for these things. I hate them!

7. My idea of fun does NOT include which may put me in physical harm such as other people’s idea of fun bungee jumping, line zipping, air sailing, sky diving, …..

8. Insert your own random thought here.  My brain hasn’t had a lot of time to really do random, but Tuesday’s are my typical time to join the popular blogging theme to randomize with Stacy Uncorked. You can read my random blog post Hint of Fall to Dell Nightmare

Next, let’s grab our cup of coffee to sit awhile with Patrice on Chats on the farmhouse porch.

  1. Are you a list maker? (grocery, to-do, goals, etc.) Yes, I keep a running grocery & to-do list. Without these, I’d be lost!
  2. Do you have overnight guests often? Nope!
  3. Where is your laundry room, or the area that you keep your washer and dryer? Our hook up is in the kitchen, which I really don’t like. Next house, we’ll have a laundry room for sure!
  4. How are you with tools? Power tools? Hand tools I can use with confidence, but power tools I leave that to DH.
  5. Tell me something that will make me smile. Please. You’re a pretty lady, Patrice and we all love you! (and that’s the truth!)

Hey, Wendell! I spotted some of your cousins while on my Friday outing. See…

Photo editing compliments of fotoflexer.com

Bringing up the rear on Wednesday’s blog hopping is a meme I co-host. Kindly check it out and show a little love on Wayback Wednesdays!

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10 comments

  1. I grew up in an old coal camp house and I would so love to have that house back now but it was torn down. Love your story.

  2. I totally agree with you #7–none of that thrill stuff even remotely resembles fun to me! I like you statement about nothing being special about the house but the people in it. Such a wonderful sentiment. I love using a drill but anything bigger makes way too much noise for me and, when the noise starts, I get nervous.

  3. I read one of your previous posts about heading to the Smoky Mountains and to Cades Cove. I love that area, too. We like to go to Gatlinburg and drive thru the Roaring Fork Nature Trail….saw a couple of black bears the last time we headed that way!

  4. We had a claw foot tub when I was a kid, and I hated it! I always had to check underneath to make sure there weren’t any cockroaches or mice hiding – eww! I’ll take a spider over a mouse any day!

    I enjoyed your Wednesday ramblings. Have a great day!

  5. I sure can relate to growing up in a small home, most of my childhood we lived in a traier house! Yep, back then they weren’t known as mobile homes!! Daddy worked construction and Momma wanted us all to be together, she hated renting apts because she hated cleaning them to her satisfaction before we moved in. So, they bought a trailer house and down the road we went. We were called everything from gypsies to trailer trash. We weren’t neither, just a hard working family with lots of love. Loved visiting and reading all your answers!! See Ya again soon!!

  6. Oh my! I loved your description of your childhood home. How true that a little with love is more precious than a mansion with no love. I felt I could ‘see’ your home, and that I was right there inside it. Very, very precious 🙂

  7. We had a claw tub in our house in England… I loved it! Its interesting how the size of our homes growing up is irrelevant to the memories we made there.

    Enjoy your day!

  8. I just dropped D1 off at college yesterday. I’m tearier than usual. Yes, I’m not entirely sure that tearier is a word, but you get the point. You #5 made me smile and tear- thanks!!!

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