Week 6 Theme

It had been a long ride to my hometown. Three hours in a tiny car was just about all I could take riding alone. I could not wait to arrive at my grandmother's house so I could give her a big hug, but most of all I wanted to make a trip down to the basement. I wanted to reminisce, after all my father grew up in that house, as well as my sister and I. The basement was the home for many toys, old and new, old clothes, hobbies, and memories. Seeing everything in there was my way of reconnecting with my past as well as my families and I was so excited to go back.

I ran to the front porch and swung up on to the steps as I'd done as a child, and opened the front door. My Grammy was there waiting for me with her arms open wide. We hugged for a moment and said are hello's and how are you's and then I asked  if I could spend some time downstairs. She said yes, not that I was expecting a different answer. So began my journey down in to memory lane.

The stairs are older, but cement so they're not creaky or flimsy. Each one has an edging of metal held on by screws, and are blanketed with the most hideous orange and black speckled carpet. Clearly straight out of the seventies. As you descend down the stairs Farther down, near the opening at the bottom of the stairs there is a hole in the wall where the water heater sits, one of my sister and I's favorite hiding places. Reaching the bottom step you can see the enclosure my grandfather had made to hold the wood for the stove int he winter time and the washer and dryer right next to that. Directly ahead of the stairs there is an island that houses all of the laundry goods and a few random doodad's that had been picked up over the years and placed there. Everything is dusty down here, not like it hasn't been used but in an old kind of way. Traveling between the washer/dryer and the island on the perpendicular wall sits my grandfathers old work bench. He sat there for hours making models of his favorite airplanes and tinkering with her electric ones. All his prized models hang from the ceiling, displayed in a neat fashion right above his desk. Looking back on the island, on one of the beams holding it up there are the heights and ages of my sister and I and maybe a few cousins too, from the time we moved in to the time we moved out. A nice little spot to stop and reminiscence on the years we all spent here together.

The rest of the basement, to the right of the stairs is split in two horizontally by a faux ply wood wall running through the middle of the room. On the right side of the division it is mostly storage; totes of seasonal decor, old clothes and toys, yard sale stuff, and more. In the far right corner there is a huge chunk of rock protruding out of the wall with a flat top surface. On top of this structure there is a crudely painted railroad track with tree's and such lining the way and there is a small box of toy cars in the corner. Every generation has played with their hot-wheels on this little track and the memories of my sister and I playing there come swooping back every time I see it. To the left of the rock there is a doorway running from floor to ceiling connecting the two sides of the basement. On the other side of the wall it's like a scene from a living room in the seventies. There was an old "toy" organ that was probably from my dad's younger sister up against the dividing wall. There was an old white, brown, and orange plaid, corduroy couch farther down which was directly across from an old wood stove that was used to heat the entire house. The wall behind the couch was decorated in framed pictures of airplanes or landscapes, and on both sides of the pictures there was an light that looked like an older latern. Again, straight out of the seventies. Everything about this room was right out of my dad's childhood, and that's why I loved it, it brought me back to a time I wish I know more about. 

Although the room looked like it was from a time machine, to the left of the stove was our video game set-up, with the original Nintendo 64. I can just imagine all the times my cousins and I sat down there for hours trying to beat each others scores and move up a level. This whole basement brings back memories, not only for me but for my family and grandmother. Every inch of dusted covered surface and totes, all the old toys, and hobbies that have been discarded over the years down here. This is a dark, chilly basement but it holds so many bright happy memories.