The Family Room

 

 

 

 



Mom:
The family room was a joke because it was so small.  The one wall had so many things hanging on it when you were all younger.  One day Marné and I decided to clean up the clutter, you all now have something in your piles or pictures, etc. that had hung on that wall at one time.  After the sewing room was built and my doll business grew, there were piles of bolts of fabric resting on the raffia chest until Corey decided to give me a Mother's Day gift of shelves for the sewing room, The good thing about the family room when you were younger and smaller was that I could be preparing a meal and you would be playing or watching TV in plain sight.  There was a playpen to hold the toys or baby, Corey, Cary and Maren all spent time in the play pen.  We always had a sleep/sofa for company the first one was white, then a green and white striped, then Cary's favorite black leather we inherited from Grandma Woolley, then the pastel floral with the striped loveseat and chair, which we still have.

Maren:
I've seen it in many photos from when I was a baby or toddler, but I personally don't ever remember the green striped couch.  I do remember the rock coffee table that Grandpa Judd made, though.  Those wicker basket "tables" were always a part of the room, storing some of mom's fabric and dolls and doubling as a table for a pile of magazines (Reader's Digest, anyone?).  The black wall unit that ran along the majority of the wall was memorable, with it's knobby posts.  Another thing I remember dusting a lot.  The very top stored Trivial Pursuit, a game I was always too young to ever really play with certain family members, as well as Pictionary, which I could handle.  The shelf just below that was at about eye-level and was especially prone to collecting junk (business cards, small papers and receipts, odd coins, paper clips.  Was there a can for pens and pencils?).  It would get straightened up every once in a while but always fell back into disarray soon after.  Another shelf held the cream colored rotary phone, phone books, and pad of paper for messages. The lower shelf housed the VHS cassette holder and the VCR that sometimes worked.  Did we go through a few VCRs over the years?  There was also the pile of newspapers that sat between the wall unit and the kitchen pantry door.

The black couch was the longest living resident that I remember in the family room.  It did have a hole or two on the arm rests, but a throw blanket could cover that up.  At one point Mom made a quilt for some Relief Society program in the ward and she got to keep it, so it found it's place draped over the back of the couch.  It often slid down and had to be repositioned a lot, but it was incredibly convenient when it was cold and you were feeling a little drowsy while lying on the couch, or you just wanted to get comfy while watching TV or a movie.  Vacuuming out the couch could be a money maker sometimes if you were lucky enough to find a handful of coins amongst all the crumbs that filtered through the vinyl cushions.  The cats and Oscar often enjoyed lying down behind the couch.  When the sun shone through the back windows and sliding glass door it provided a nice warm spot, and/or it provided a safe haven from an annoying preteen girl that wanted to dress them up or a terrorizing teen boy that found it amusing to chase them around with the vacuum. 

Mom spent many an hour on that couch, whether she was resting from work in the later afternoon watching Channel 4 news or The Donahue Show (early afternoon it may have been General Hospital), or hand sewing something.  When I was really little I have faint memories of her laying on the couch and I would climb up and try to lay down next to her.  I think I would realize after a minute or two that it wasn't really that comfortable and the couch didn't really have the depth to accommodate both of us.

Mom employed me at one point to turn and stuff the arms and legs of the furry bears and bunnies she made with the porcelain heads. I would park myself on the couch with a thick dowel rod as a stuffing stick, the bag of stuffing, and paper grocery bags to put the stuffed arms and legs. I think I got 25 cents per limb.  Fur would be a-flying.  Then Mom would hand sew the plastic joint pieces into place and assemble them.

Later on, when I was in Jr. high school, the black couch was replaced with the floral couch and striped love seat and chair.  They have all proven to be quite comfortable and durable.  The wall unit was replaced with the oak colored TV stand that had the sliding doors to hide the TV when not in use.  I remember the Northridge earthquake in 1994 tipped that stand over, but it didn't completely fall because the cord from the TV stayed in the electrical outlet, thus holding everything up at an angle and preventing a disaster.  The stand was bolted to the wall after that.

The school photos of Cary, Corey, Curtis in chronological order were there for a long time.  Dad recently told me that that funky wooden clock with the rocks hanging from it was from Uncle Kent.  Did Uncle Kent actually make it or just give it to us?  The blue and white Delft Dutch plate from Grandma Woolley.  Mom's hope chest moved between the family room and the entry way of the house.  Early on, I vaguely remember there being the cabinet that was full of vinyl records and it having a record player on top.

When sitting in the family room you could sometimes hear people jumping or banging around in the bedrooms directly above it.  Or sometimes just when they walk across their bedroom you might hear a squeak or two.

Smaller quilts would be put up for quilting in the family room.  Since the room was so small to begin with, you would have to squeeze by the quilting frames to get from one side of the room to the other.  Or if you were small and limber enough, you could just crawl under it.  I have distinct memories of Mom quilting while watching football on TV.  However, if you were sitting on the couch, your view would be obstructed by the quilting frames. 

Before I started going to school, Mom had a cloth play house that she would set up for me in the family room by draping it over a card table and sticking an empty milk jug under the roof portion to make it pointy.  I really loved playing in that little house.  I don't know what ever happened to it.

Dad:
The family room was kind of a central place where we spent a lot of time. That was where we watched TV and where informal visitors and extended family visitors would hang out. The TV sat on the  "wall unit" which was also a convenient place to put stuff. The telephone was on the wall, so it didn't take up space on the wall unit. It was the best place in the house to hang out.

Curtis:
The "wall unit" is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the family room. it makes me laugh that we called that thing the "wall unit" all those years. The name is so utilitarian. But that fine piece held our phones, TVs, and VCRs--all the finest communication and entertainment devices money could buy in those days. I think we started with a rotary dial phone there but later upgraded to a push button model. That wall unit held our black and white TV until Mom and Dad upgraded us to a fine color model when I was about 8 or 10. I wasn't entirely clear on what all the fuss was about with a color TV. Funny since I like to fancy myself a visually oriented craftsman these days.

Corey:
My earliest memory of the family room was the green striped couch and the small black and white tv on the "wall unit".  I think it was me who put his knee through the upholstery of that couch when I was rocking on my elbows on the arm of the couch.  I remember feeling a sense of dread when my knee tore through the fabric. I also recall feeling clever for just a small instant when I decided to use the "wall unit" shelves as a ladder to reach something on the top shelf.  I must have been no older than 5, and maybe weighed around 50 pounds, but it was enough to topple the shelf on top of me as I neared the top. I don't think I lost consciousness, but I remember an instant of confusion and disbelief as I was lying on my back with the shelf on top of me, wondering what just happened.

I remember the puffy, dark brown lazyboy recliner and the polished rock coffee table that was made by Grandpa Judd. I remember the legs were always wobbly and they didn't last long.

I recall the larger color TV, changing its channels as a living, breathing remote control for Mom as she took her afternoon break, lying on the big black vinyl couch. That and analog tissue fetcher. 

I also remember a feeling of amazement and wonder looking at the first VCR that we had.  I think we were one of the first ones on the street to have one, which was a surprise.

I remember the cuckoo clock on the wall, given to us by Grandma and Grandpa, which they got in either Germany or Switzerland.  And the other clock with the stone weights. And the blue Delft plate with a picture of a windmill.

I remember the tunnel formed along the back of the black vinyl couch, a thoroughfare for Oscar and the various cats. And the scratchy brown blanket I think was from Chile (alpaca maybe?)that was always draped over the back of the couch.

And then there was the brown carpet.  The family room was one the the highest traffic rooms in the house and that brown carpet took a beating. And once Mom started making the stuffed bunnies and bears, there was always a white haze of synthetic fur blanketing its surface.  It was satisfying to vacuum that brown carpet because you were able to make such a difference, almost changing the color of the floor.  But it was less satisfying at the same time because it was so worn and trampled you couldn't vacuum nice "backgammon" lines except along the untouched edges.

The white carpet remodel and TV cabinet were past my time in the house, but I still remember Savanna's baby blessing photos in the family room.  It was amazing to me that she didn't cry more as she was passed around that afternoon.