Lilac Colored Glasses

I know you have all been on the edge of your seats wondering what my dad requested for a blog post, and even if you haven’t, tonight you’ll find out. When asked, “Hey Dad, if you could read about anything on my blog, anything at all, what would you want to read?” And his answer was:

“Memories from Beacon Hill? That would be nice.”
Beacon Hill is the housing plan I grew up in until we moved to Plum when I was 9. My maternal grandparents lived in the same plan, just up the hill and around the corner. We could walk out into the backyard, look up the hill and see my grandparents waving from the back deck (this comes into play later). Anyway, my earliest memories come from our townhouse on Lighthouse Point in Beacon Hill. I have composed a list of 15 memories, some more hazy then others, and I dedicate them to you, Dad. I hope you enjoy what I was able to come up with.

1. Scooter’s bedroom had green walls. Not an attractive sea foam or a trendy lime, oh no, this was pea soup green paint partnered with a wall papered in white with primary colored stripes forming this sparse plaid type pattern. Scooter’s Room = fugly.

2. My bedroom had pink walls with pink floral wall paper (the first thing I asked for in the new house was for a paint color other than pink for my room). I remember the closet had white metal doors that I always felt were too loud if you shut them so they latched correctly. I had a convoy of G.I. Joes in my closet alongside three stables of My Little Pony. Everything else was kept in my Strawberry Shortcake toybox. My Room = uberpoufy

3. There was a beat up old orange recliner in my parents room. It was on my mom’s side of the bed and I used to curl up and sleep in it when I was still young enough to be afraid of nightmares but too old to climb in my parents’ bed.

4. I remember four games I played in the shower, one by myself, one with my dad when I was wee little, and two with my brother when we were old enough that I could bathe us both without much supervision. I had a game I called “March People March” where basically I just marched in the shower chanting “March, people, march,” like I was leading a parade. Then, I’d pretend they’d stopped marching, I’d turn around and yell “People!” in an exasperated voice. My dad would turn the pressure down on the shower head and squirt me in the face with it. I called it “Puppy” cause, I guess it felt like a puppy licking my face (see, even as a toddler I was that hard up for a pet). When I was 6 and my brother was 3 we had a version of Double Dare which mostly consisted of each of us using sopping washcloths as “pies” and hitting each other in the face. Finally I remember when my mom bought us tub crayons that were non staining, non toxic soapy crayon type things. You could draw on the tub or younger siblings. Which was awesome until the next day when we discovered said younger sib was allergic to tub crayons as was indicated in the geometrically shaped rashes all over his body (compliments of yours truly).

5. I remember my mom telling Scooter not to drive his matchbox cars on top of the end tables because it would scratch the wood.

6. Recall that back hill that we had where you could look up and see my grandparents’ house. It was seeded with crown vetch every year and it got pretty tangled. Now, as kids it would have made for a fun adventure to scale the hill to go visit Grandma and Grandpa, right? Well, not when your mother convinces you that your back hill is full of snakes and rats, just waiting for you to walk into the crown vetch so they can gnaw your ankles off. Good scare tactic. It worked for several years. Didn’t get over my fear of either until my freshman year of college. Thanks Mom.

7. Beacon Hill has a community pool where we used to go almost every day in the summer. My granparents would be there too. My grandpa used to let us “surf” on his back. He’d go underwater and we would stand on his back. Then he’d push off and swim the width of the pool underwater. And the first thing I always remember about those times was the sun shining off my Grandpa’s green enamel Chai when he came out from under the water.

8. I remember my Grandma (late Grandma, but I never think of it that way) making me her favorite lunch when I spent the afternoon at her house: cottage cheese and tuna fish with melba toast. Cause after all, what five year old child doesn’t like to eat such a fabulous melange?

9. I remember family games of Uno. It was a game we could all play together once my brother could count and it was fun to play a card game with all six of us.

10. When I was a bit older a water main in the ceiling of the townhouse broke and soaked the first floor carpeting all the way through. We had to get the whole thing torn up and replaced, which was a good thing cause the original carpet was sort of a dirt brown color. The new carpet was beige and soft and much nicer.

11. One of my fondest memories happened late one night while we were waiting for my dad to come home (this was when he used to work very late at the furniture store and didn’t get home until after 9 p.m. So, that might not be really late, but to a little kid it sure feels like it). In my life I had had 3 little teddy bears, Peaches, Patches, and Baby Bear. They were from Australia and had been given to me by my great aunt. I used to play with their fur and suck my thumb. I played with all three of them so much I wore off all the fur and much of the stitching. My mom ended up wrapping them in plastic wrap to hold them together and I couldn’t use them anymore. So, I had no teddy bears. Anyway, we were having a teddy bear day in school and I had no teddy bear to take in with me. I was pretty upset. My mom let me stay up late to wait for my dad and when he came in he was holding a white teddy bear with a little powder blue polo shirt and blue corduroy pants. His shirt said Preppy Bear, so that became his name. As far as I know, Preppy Bear is still somewhere in the house, either in one of the boxes from the fire or in the attic.

12. My dad taught me to ride a bike without training wheels in the apartment parking lot across the street. After I had accomplished this I was allowed to ride to the mail tree and back (maybe 50 yards up the street, tops).

13. The curbs in Beacon Hill were very high compared with the asphalt nubbins that serve as a guide for where to walk on the roads nowadays. Beacon Hill has sidewalks. Secure concrete sidewalks with awesome curbs. I used to walk only on those, pretending I was walking a balance beam, when we took walks around the neighborhood.

14. My late aunt used to come over and take me for walks through Beacon Hill. We would collect Halloween buckets full of buckeyes. I don’t remeber much about these walks, but I do remember my aunt every time I see a buckeye.

15. When I was five, my mom taught me to tie my shoes on a piece of cardboard that she drew a big shoe on and then put laces through.

There are a lot of other scattered odds and ends from those first years of my life that flicker through my consciousness. It happens even more since I started working with kids. Sometimes when they’re totally absorbed in playing with a cup in the sink when they should be going pee and I stick my head in the doorway, they jump three feet in the air and look at me like, “how does she always know?” And those are the times when I have to smile, remembering when I used to get caught doing little things and always wonder how my mom and dad knew everything. When Obi’s face crumples after someone tells him to be careful that he doesn’t kick one of the other kids when he tries a cartwheel, I remember what it felt like, to be so proud of something and then to be chastised for it. In my child’s mind, the words always felt so cruel. Now as an adult, I understand why people got exasperated when I cried at every little correction.

I’ve been told, quite often actually, that I have an amazing long term memory, especially for small details. I can remember books and conversations almost verbatim. Sometimes it can get me into trouble, but it has been a real advantage for me as far as having insight into the kids. And hopefully it made my dad smile too!

Related posts:

1. Hearing Memories
2. A Single Serving Yogurt
3. Centipost
4. It’s Getting Hot In Here (Don’t Take Off All Your Clothes)
5. Say What??