After three years of living in paradise my wanderlust soul grows weary again. This time I have a totally different mindset as I am packing up and preparing for the trip back to the mainland. When I moved to Hawaii I felt I had to take everything with me, I suppose doing this was my security blanket substitute, moving across an ocean always seems like you are going farther than moving across land. What I decided to bring with me to my move to Missouri was basically whatever would fit in one TWA freight container pod. As I recall the dimensions we roughly seven feet by five feet by five feet. So I taped off the space on the floor in the guest bedroom and what would fit I would air freight to St. Louis the rest was sold or given away. They only exceptions were several boxes of books that I mailed taking advantage of the USPS great book rate.
Once I landed in St. Louis and got ready to move in to my home it was really like starting all over again. Looking back on the experience it was a lot of fun and I was certainly doing my part to stimulate the economy, purchasing everything you can image from soup to nuts and everything in between. My new clutter-free environment soon became filled to the rafters with the usual crap that we tend to accumulate and keep and treasure over time.
Over the years I had a great time redecorating the home to my own taste. It wasn't a large home for an average family, but for a single person it was really more than ample. Two of the extra bedrooms became guest rooms; another became my office with a wonderful view of the front yard and everything going on in the neighborhood. For some reason my decorating became very theme oriented; there was the Wimbledon Room, painted a cheery light yellow with one wall papered in a vintage tennis scene. The other guest room became the Garden Room complete with picket fence wallpaper on the lower third of the walls and the ceiling overhead painted with lots of white billowy clouds.
A few years before I moved yet again, I did a major remodeling of the kitchen and added hardwood floors to the entire downstairs area. That kitchen still is my favorite kitchen and considering all of the kitchens I have had over the years I guess that is saying a lot.
My guess if you were to ask the grandkids what they liked most is they would say the backyard. The house came with this huge rope swing that hung down from one of the great old oak trees. In fact it was the swing that was the closer on purchasing the place. In the summer months the kids could play to their hearts content out in that backyard and when water was added to the mix it became even more fun. Water and Missouri's clay soil become this gooey, slippery and slimy mixture that is a child's delight on a warm summer day.
This little house had it all, a tree house atmosphere from the master bedroom with a view of the backyard from the tree tops, a crackling fire to warm your fingers and toes after sledding down the slope of the front lawn and into the street on snowy winter days. In the fall I could manage to rake up stacks and stacks and stacks of leaves that would be needed to be bagged and lugged to the street for pickup, always hoping it wouldn't rain and heavy the bags before I could finish the job. But I think my favorite time of year back here is in the spring, when I can just sit back and watch it all happen. Mother Nature is quite the designer taking those scraggly little tree limbs and turning them into a thing of beauty before my very eyes.
People often talk about the fall, the changing colors of the leaves from green to a variety of reds, yellows and browns and it is no doubt a spectacular event. But for me that change when Mother Nature takes the dull and drab garments of winter and puts on her own version of Project Runway is my very favorite time. First the nubs and buds fatten before your very eyes, just the slightest bit of warmth to the air will cause the little leaves to breakthrough, followed quickly by the burst of the little buds into flowers of yellows, reds, whites and pinks. In almost an instant you find the drab whites and grays of winter gone, replaced with a new palette, rainbow rich in color.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Going Home Again - Chesterfield, MO 1990-2000
After three years of living in paradise my wanderlust soul grows weary again. This time I have a totally different mindset as I am packing up and preparing for the trip back to the mainland. When I moved to Hawaii I felt I had to take everything with me, I suppose doing this was my security blanket substitute, moving across an ocean always seems like you are going farther than moving across land. What I decided to bring with me to my move to Missouri was basically whatever would fit in one TWA freight container pod. As I recall the dimensions we roughly seven feet by five feet by five feet. So I taped off the space on the floor in the guest bedroom and what would fit I would air freight to St. Louis the rest was sold or given away. They only exceptions were several boxes of books that I mailed taking advantage of the USPS great book rate.
Once I landed in St. Louis and got ready to move in to my home it was really like starting all over again. Looking back on the experience it was a lot of fun and I was certainly doing my part to stimulate the economy, purchasing everything you can image from soup to nuts and everything in between. My new clutter-free environment soon became filled to the rafters with the usual crap that we tend to accumulate and keep and treasure over time.
Over the years I had a great time redecorating the home to my own taste. It wasn't a large home for an average family, but for a single person it was really more than ample. Two of the extra bedrooms became guest rooms; another became my office with a wonderful view of the front yard and everything going on in the neighborhood. For some reason my decorating became very theme oriented; there was the Wimbledon Room, painted a cheery light yellow with one wall papered in a vintage tennis scene. The other guest room became the Garden Room complete with picket fence wallpaper on the lower third of the walls and the ceiling overhead painted with lots of white billowy clouds.
A few years before I moved yet again, I did a major remodeling of the kitchen and added hardwood floors to the entire downstairs area. That kitchen still is my favorite kitchen and considering all of the kitchens I have had over the years I guess that is saying a lot.
My guess if you were to ask the grandkids what they liked most is they would say the backyard. The house came with this huge rope swing that hung down from one of the great old oak trees. In fact it was the swing that was the closer on purchasing the place. In the summer months the kids could play to their hearts content out in that backyard and when water was added to the mix it became even more fun. Water and Missouri's clay soil become this gooey, slippery and slimy mixture that is a child's delight on a warm summer day.
This little house had it all, a tree house atmosphere from the master bedroom with a view of the backyard from the tree tops, a crackling fire to warm your fingers and toes after sledding down the slope of the front lawn and into the street on snowy winter days. In the fall I could manage to rake up stacks and stacks and stacks of leaves that would be needed to be bagged and lugged to the street for pickup, always hoping it wouldn't rain and heavy the bags before I could finish the job. But I think my favorite time of year back here is in the spring, when I can just sit back and watch it all happen. Mother Nature is quite the designer taking those scraggly little tree limbs and turning them into a thing of beauty before my very eyes.
People often talk about the fall, the changing colors of the leaves from green to a variety of reds, yellows and browns and it is no doubt a spectacular event. But for me that change when Mother Nature takes the dull and drab garments of winter and puts on her own version of Project Runway is my very favorite time. First the nubs and buds fatten before your very eyes, just the slightest bit of warmth to the air will cause the little leaves to breakthrough, followed quickly by the burst of the little buds into flowers of yellows, reds, whites and pinks. In almost an instant you find the drab whites and grays of winter gone, replaced with a new palette, rainbow rich in color.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
LOVE THE HOUSE. MEMORIES, YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM AWAY. SOMETIMES, THAT'S ALL WE HAVE WHEN THE KIDS LEAVE AND THEY HAVE TO LIVE THEIR OWN LIVES. 11:45 P.M. AND WATCHING AN OLD MA AND PA KETTLE MOVIE.
ReplyDeleteTG