Master Bedroom

 

Corey

Curtis

 



Corey

Corey

 Corey

 

Marné and Corey

 

A fine portrait of Dad's desk

Aftermath of the Northridge earthquake 1994

Maren:
I distinctly remember this room having light blue carpeting, as shown in the photos above.  Mom and Dad tell me it was green when they first moved in.

To me it seemed like quite a spacious room. Mom and Dad's bed had a very 70's style headboard that was dark brown with lots of knobs and shapes carved into it.  For many years, at the end of their bed was Dad's desk where he displayed his accounting calculator. It was fun to watch when he used it as it clicked away like a cash register when it printed his debits and credits.  He had a little statue of a wire man that held a piece of that calculator paper that I suppose was intended to be a little accountant.  Sometimes that little statue seemed a little creepy to me, I don't know why.  The baby food jar of colored sand, painted rocks for paper weights, and a pencil jar or two made by one of his kids was always there, too.  It was fun to go digging through the top drawer to find and re-find treasures like the box of real bullets (tucked in the back) and his harmonica. 

Next to the door leading into the room was a semi-dilapidated antique dresser that served as storage for all of the board games.  Aggravation, Trouble, Sorry, and MasterMind are the games that immediately come to mind.  I think at some point that dresser was nicely restored.  Don't you now have it now, Marné?  Did it originally belong to an ancestor or another family member from Mom's side?

For many years, Mom and Dad's dresser was along the wall next to the sliding glass door that led out to the balcony.  Dad had the left side for his little collection plate that stored random coins and other child-made gifts, while Mom's side on the right had (I think) a green jewelry box...  Above the dresser hung a 70's-ish style still life of a pitcher and perhaps some other dishes (see photo above).   Anyone know the history behind that painting and where it ended up?  In the bottom of the frame Dad had tucked a few Polaroid photos - the two I remember the most are of Corey's baptism day when they were leaving the pool and one of Mom and Dad at some sort of work party (they wore name tags and both were wearing quite large glasses).

Mom and Dad's closet was extensive, with 3 sliding doors to it.  Mom's side started on the left, Dad's on the right, and they shared the middle.  The three Mexican hats (that Grandma and Grandpa Woolley had brought back for the 3 boys from a trip to Mexico) were in the middle section and pulled out every once in a while for fun.  Dad's guitar was also in there.

I don't recall the balcony ever really being used much.  Mainly just to hang Christmas lights that hung there until February or March or whenever the Home Owner's Association complained.  A basketball hoop hung from it for a few years.  White lacey curtains covered the sliding glass door.

I have memories of Mom getting ready for church on Sunday mornings, sitting on her side of the bed (nearest the balcony), drying her hair in her marshmallowy hair dryer machine that she placed over her hair curlers as she reviewed a Gospel Doctrine or Relief Society lesson that she was to teach later in the day.  Sometimes she would paint my nails there, too.

When I was very young and Mom would be reading in bed at night I would crawl into Dad's side of the bed and read, too.  I distinctly remember loving Dr. Seuss' The Foot Book and reading it there.  I would often pretend to fall asleep so Dad would carry me to my bed when he came upstairs.

Mom would also put me down for a nap on Dad's side of the bed many afternoons.  I would fight it so much, but she would lie down next to me and I would eventually fall asleep.  I always felt so deceived when I woke up and she wasn't there as I knew she had just faked sleeping to get me to take a nap.

The master bathroom had a vanity that was semi open to the rest of the room (it didn't have a door) that had a sink and a decent length of counter space with a big mirror and medicine cabinet. Mom's mirrored jewelry plate was there for her pearls and other jewelry and was surrounded by her perfumes (Poison in the dark purple bottle was one I distinctly remember) and makeup.  Sometimes she'd let me put some perfume on, too.  Beyond that was the actual bathroom with a toilet and shower that had a fiberglass door.  Sometimes one of the kids would bathe in there, likely due to the other bathroom being occupied.  When I was very young I remember being terrified to clean the toilet as some older siblings told me that when it was flushed (only after cleaning, mind you, not if it was just being used to relieve oneself) that a scary monster popped up out of it. So I helped with the cleaning, then it would be flushed, and I would run like mad around the corner to escape and leave the room as quickly as possible.

In later years, a moveable console was added to the room for what I think was the first real family desktop computer that we had (see photo above).  We could check e-mail and only have to wait 15 minutes to open a message instead of days for snail mail.  It was pretty incredible.  When I think about the beginning of the Internets, I can't help but think of that room and that computer.

The room was also spacious enough that it was useful for laying out fabric to cut for making a new dress or skirt.  Christmas gift wrapping often took place there, too, since it offered space for rolling out the paper and privacy (locking the door was often necessary to warrant that).

Curtis:
Basketballs would sometimes get stuck on the balcony with particularly bad shots. Dad's guitar was hidden in the closet and sometimes he would pull it out and play a stunning 4 note ditty for us. Hiding in that huge closet during hide and seek games was a pretty sure bet. Sometimes Mom and Dad hid Christmas presents in various places in the master bedroom, until they wised up to the antics of their boys. :)

Dad:
The master bedroom was a place of refuge, when things got frantic and I needed some space. It was my "office" for awhile, when I had my small desk located back in a corner of it. It was the one place in the house where I could study during the years when I was going to school at CSUN.

The balcony was little used, more for looks than function. It was, however a convenient place to attach the Christmas lights during the holiday seasons. It was also a convenient place to attach a basketball backboard for several years.      

 

The master bedroom was quite a bit bigger than the other bedrooms and it had a vaulted ceiling, which gave it a feeling more open and larger than it was. That part of the house was like a windbreak when the Santa Ana winds would blow from the north and the sliding glass door would rattle, sometimes waking us up during the night. 

 

It was a good room to sleep in especially during the summer when we could open the sliding glass door and get a gentle breeze through it. However during the winter when the wind blew a lot, it was one of the coldest rooms in the house.

Mom:
The master bedroom had a light green carpet which I chose because we had a medium green bedspread.  I also order really pretty 1970 era lace drapes with a blackout liner.  This was the largest master bedroom in any of our houses.  During the earthquake of 1993? the computer monitor fell into the drapes, but was not damaged.  A week later on a Sunday after church I was talking to Dad on the sidewalk in front of the house when he came home and I was leaving for a Young Woman's meeting when a 5.0 aftershock hit and as we looked up at the house, the monitor fell again against the drapes and window.  I didn't like that the bathroom was not completely self contained behind a door.  Because Dad got up at 5 a.m. to commute into Burbank it was nearly impossible to sleep while he got ready for work.  When Cary was born we had him in a port-a-crib and would roll it by the sink at night.  He slept in the regular crib during the day.  At one point I hung wallpaper on the east wall.  Because of damage to the closet doors I quickly hung wallpaper on the doors. 

 

I rarely made the bed since I only seem to go up there to go to bed and no visitors would see our bedroom.  When we moved to Venus Street I made the bed every day since I could see it every day.  We have (Dad and me) continued to make the bed every day.

Cary:
I remember several things about the master suite on Rosewood.

1.  It was the first place we graduated to taking showers. As mentioned in a previous entry, I don’t think the kid bathroom we all shared had a curtain on it till I was a teenager.

2. Aquanet hairspray in bulk on the marble counter and a bottle of Old Spice in the medicine cabinet. I think the bottle of Old Spice was consistent my entire tenure at 1926. I mean, the same exact bottle. I’m not sure dad ever used it. I’m assuming it was a good intentioned gift that he probably felt bad throwing out.

3. The computer cabinet where I did my junior year term paper and printed out on our LASER printer. I remember thinking we must have “made it”, we had a laser printer. That’s big-time.

4. I have faint memories of attempting to get in bed with mom and dad after a bad dream and being told, “it’s alright, you’re fine, sleep on the floor next to the bed”. I don’t believe I ever once slept in that bed. When mom and dad were in China and I was house sitting I lived in the guest wing bedroom, but every now and again, I’d go sleep in their bed, just because I could.

5. The balcony. Yes, the balcony was easily the most awesome part. If you were agile and brave it was especially useful on Sunday afternoons. You could go up stairs as if you were going to play in your room, rustle some toys around for a few minutes then silently make your way to the balcony. If you had the right combination of stupidity and guts (not naming any names{“me” isn’t a name}) you could jump off the corner closest to the lawn and land more or less unscathed with the proper stuntman roll.

Corey:
Green shag carpet with a big play area when I was little. There were tons of bottles and little things on the counter in the bathroom that made cleaning time consuming. There was an ugly basket garbage can too. The bathroom with the toilet and the shower had the scale. This was
Dad's only retreat. There was a sliding glass door to the balcony, which we never used. Mom hid christmas presents in the closet, though Curtis always easily found them. Dad had his pistol and rifle on the shelf on his side of the closet, along with his old guitar.

Bedroom #3

Aftermath of the 1994 earthquake

Maren:
That's pretty sad that this is the only photo I can find of this room.  I think that bed with the wooden headboard was pretty much always in that room.  It was a little wobbly so if it was positioned too close to the wall it would bang against it anytime your sat down or rolled over on the bed.  I believe I had this room through much of junior high school and through most of high school as well.  In junior high school, I remember having the wooden roll top desk in place of the newer white Ikea desk that I got later on.  On the little shelves of the roll top desk I displayed by ceramic cat collection and on top of those shelves was a great little hiding place out of view to store paper route money and other secret stuff.

The window was kind of at an odd place where the roof came up to the middle of it.  It was right over the front door, so when someone rang the doorbell or knocked on the door, your could look down to see who was there without being noticed (and if you were home alone, to see if it was worth going downstairs to open the door.  For friends, yes.  For solicitors, nah.)  In the spring and summer you could enjoy the scent of the star jasmine that climbed the pole on the front porch if you left the window open, too.  The most noteworthy thing for me about this window and it's placement was when Friskie would get in fights with other cats in the middle of the night on the roof right outside this room.  Both cats involved in the scuffle would make the most eerie whine that sounded like a baby crying.  I quickly learned I could break up the fight by opening the window abruptly and shooing the enemy cat away.  Sometimes Friskie would follow it, sometimes he would come in through the window (I thought the window had a screen, but maybe it got ruined).  But I'd get frustrated by being woken in the middle of the night so many times by these cat fights.

When the cats were in the room in the middle of the night, they would often scratch the closet doors to wake me up to let them out of the room.  Those closet doors (and wallpaper) took a serious beating thanks to those cats' claws. Writing these stories makes me realize I didn't get much sleep while I was in that room. 

I also associate this room with R.E.M., They Might Be Giants, and Queen.  The first two bands were listened to a lot in this room, and Queen was introduced to me thanks to the movie "Wayne's World" that came out when I was in jr. high. I quickly memorized "Bohemian Rhapsody" by listening to it repeatedly in a short period of time.

When the Northridge Earthquake hit around 4:30 in the morning on January 17, 1994, all I remember is waking up on the floor, stumbling to the doorway as quickly as possible, holding on for dear life, and yelling for it to stop.  It seemed to last forever.  Luckily there wasn't any severe damage to any of us or to the house, but we had plenty to clean up.  And I was happy to get a day or two off of school.:-)

In earlier years, I'd have to associate this room with Billy Idol and Metallica from the days that Cary inhabited the room.  I remember playing his Nintendo in there while sitting on the end of the bed, usually in a puddle of his bedspread and/or dirty clothes that littered the ground, while also listening to loud music.

Dad:
Here is my take on the "third bedroom". It was kind of a multipurpose room over the years. Soon after we moved in when Corey was born, it was the nursery room for him. Then, eventually, he was moved to one of the other bedrooms with Curtis. It then became the sewing room when Mom was making the back packing tents. It contained the big power sewing machine which could be heard throughout the house when it was working. A lot of completed tents were made in that room. When the room was added on downstairs, that became the sewing room and the sewing machine and "inventory", etc. was all moved downstairs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I moved my desk in the room and it became my office for awhile when I was going to school and needed a place to study. When we (Curtis) got the Commodore 64 computer, the room also became the "computer room". We also had the IBM computer and subsequent computers in that room in later years. Then it became Cary's room for awhile, although I think the computer was still kept there. My office (desk) was eventually moved into a corner of the master bedroom to make more room in the third bedroom. That room served us well over the 26 years that we lived in the Rosewood Court house. This is my attempt to describe the use of the room in chronological order, but it may not be very accurate. That was a long time and my memory of events has faded over the years. That's why it needs to be written down, (by all family members). So everyone, lets write something.

Curtis:
Small bedroom above the front door. Was mine for a couple of years. I think it had that funny blue carpeting with a strange low pile but bumpy texture.

 

Aside from that. I liked that it gave a view of the front porch--very handy for assessing whether a knock at the door was a friend coming for a visit. My first encounter with Compuserve and Q-Link online services took place in this room. Little did I know that some day I would work for the company that started Q-Link and later bought Compuserve. I'm sorry Mom and Dad for signing up for that one-month trial of Compuserve without your permission but I am happy to report that it secured a pretty decent start to my career.

Mom:
When we first moved to Thousand Oaks the smallest bedroom was my sewing room.  I was making backpacking tents at the time so I spent many hours in this room.  When Corey was born he had his crib in there and I would work while he slept.  There was also a small porta-crib that was by the sewing machine so he could see me while I worked.  There was a small "jungle gym" that he could also reach when he was a little older.  When Corey was about 4 months old we moved Corey into Curtis' room because the power sewing machine was louder and he was more sensitive to noise while he slept.  When he was a toddler he would play in his bedroom, but also bring toys into the sewing room to play near me.

 

Grandma Woolley also gave me her "quilting TV" so I could "listen" to programs and baseball games.

 

Marne' was the first to have this room when the new sewing room was built while I was pregnant with Maren.  It was also used as a guest room from time to time.  Dani and Vanessa both used this room when they came to visit before they were married.

Corey:
I never lived in this bedroom. Marné had this room for many years, followed by Curtis. I remember him having his big Joe Weider weight bench right in the middle of the room. Then Cary had this room for a while, where he learned to play Metallica on his guitar and Loopin the cat would jump out the window on to the roof.

Upstairs Bathroom

Curtis

 

Maren:

Two smells immediately come to mind when I think of the bathroom:  Zest soap and Oscar's green shampoo that filled the bathroom several hours after he got a bath with it's medicinal smell.

 

Dad was in charge of bathing us when we were small.  I remember every time initially not wanting to take a bath, but that I always enjoyed it once I got in there, playing with a washcloth and/or sloshing water around to see how big of waves I could make.

 

Washing the pets was never fun.  Even if I was downstairs, I distinctly remember hearing Oscar whining and struggling in the bathtub as Dad bathed him.  But it was satisfying to help brush his fur afterward and more pleasant to pet him when he didn't have matted fur or little weeds stuck all over him.

 

The few times that we attempted to bathe a cat were pretty disastrous and ended with someone bleeding from multiple scratches.

 

We went through many a bar of Zest soap through the years.  We didn't waste a single piece of that stuff.  When it got too small to use properly, it would be stuck to a new bar on the plastic spiky soap dishes we had.

 

I remember the bathroom getting a makeover perhaps when I was in Jr. High, maybe when Marné was home from her mission and was available to help with her sense of design.  I remember a navy blue carpet going in as well as a new ceramic blue and white toothbrush cup and a proper matching soap dish that really "dressed up" the bathroom.  Oh, and a fuzzy toilet seat cover that matched the new carpet, of course.

 

Many a zit was popped while looking into that mirror.  I know I'm not the only one that can testify to that.

 

Dad:

I didn't spend much time in the upstairs bathroom. I used it to give Oscar his baths in there. Oscar used to smell really bad, especially when he spent much time outside. He didn't like his baths, so I had to carry him upstairs and physically place him in the tub. He would give me dirty looks and try to escape, so I had to shut the bathroom door to keep him there. After he was bathed and dried off, he was a happy camper, and he would bound down the stairs in two or three leaps. 

 

Another thing I did in the bathroom was bathing you kids when you were babies. This gave us some one on one time together and it was also a good time for me to unwind after a stressful day at work. It was also a good way to help Mom as she was usually fixing dinner at the time.  

 

 Cary:

The upstairs bathroom can't be described without the nightly dialogue that echoed off it's reflective walls, "I've been giving baths for 15 years!", or a slightly different number depending where in the procession of the Judd children you fall.
For as many details as I remember from the other rooms, I have a hard time remembering pre-Netherlands makeover (complete with faux-Delft soap dish & toothbrush holder). I think I was probably 15 or 16 years old when this happened and can't remember there ever being a shower curtain before that.
The thing I remember most was having a boom box in there that I'd blast to get psyched up for the torture of Los Cerritos. I think Metallica's "Ride The Lightening" (on the bleak days) and "Master of Puppets" (for the days I wanted to go in with a good attitude) got played no less than 400 times each. Metal or die.

Corey:
This was a busy, well used bathroom. We had several carpets in here over the years, all of which got dirty and worn long before they were replaced. The tub/shower was a fiberglass insert and the drain stopper was out for many years. I remember washing Oscar in the tub and then fishing all of his hair out of the drain. He hated baths so much. I also remember making "potions" in the sink, which were always finished with that toilet cleaner that bubbled when it hit water. There was always a broken towel bar or a hole in the wall from the door knob. I can't count the number of times I cleaned this bathroom, even though it always seemed dirty with 5 kids sharing it.



Bedroom #2

Curtis

Corey

 

Scene from a Magic Show that Cary, Maren, and some of the neighborhood friends put on.  Jennifer Matthews was the assistant.

 

This was the trick where Maren hid in the box, Cary stabbed it with a knife, and when he pulled it out, there was blood on it (ketchup).  Yet Maren emerged from the box unharmed.

 

 

Maren:

This room was the second largest bedroom and the one I probably lived in the most.  This is the room that was decorated with Cat Fancy centerfolds while I was in Jr. High.  From the photos above, it's obvious that it had the day bed with the trundle under it for many years.  This is really the only room I ever remember having sleepovers with Jamie Hinkle. 

 

The screen on the window of this room had a very large hole in it.  Maybe it started out small, but I always remember it being big enough for a person to fit through.  Whenever I would spot one of the cats on the patio cover, I would open the window and try to lure them inside.  Sometimes they were happy to come and jump right in, other times, not so much.  It was through this window that Cary went one evening when he "ran away."  Mom and Dad didn't know where he had gone.  I don't remember how worried they were, but I remember discovering him, lying in a sleeping bag, on the patio cover, right under the window.  Tricky.

 

There were three white shelves on the wall, which I remember using to display stuffed animals, especially the porcelain clown and bear with a porcelain head that Mom had made.

 

Late in elementary school and possibly into Jr. high, I made big bucks with my paper route.  One of my favorite things to splurge on was a Babysitters' Club book, bought from The Book Brigade and then load up on a bunch of candy from Albertsons, which was right next door.  I often bought those treats on a Friday afternoon, went home, and lounged on the day bed, reading my new book and gorging myself on candy.  That was the life, I tell you.  I'd often read the entire book in one night.

 

In my very early years, I have very vague memories of sharing that room with Marne, or at least when she was visiting from college.  I also remember playing (and always losing) to many a game of stuffed animal football with Cary.  It probably didn't help that I never bothered (or cared) to actually learn the rules of the game.  I also vaguely remember having mice as pets, and that was the room where the cage was kept, and therefore, the room that they got lost in when they escaped. 

 

It was also a good room for building large oblong forts.  One in particular I remember was so long that it even went into the closet and reached across the entire room.  It stayed up for several days and I think I even slept in it at least one night.

 

I believe Corey and Curtis shared this room at one time when I was really young.  This may have been when I snuck in there one evening when I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be in bed, and stole a piece of Bubblicious gum off of their dresser.  I snuck back into my room, popped the gum into my mouth, and went to sleep.  I am lucky that I am still alive to tell the tale.  However, Mom probably didn't enjoy smearing peanut butter in my hair the next morning in an effort to get the gum out of my hair.

Dad:
What I remember about bedroom # 2 was that it was the 'boys room' for much of the time and in later years it became the 'girls room'.  That room was where the pet mice escaped from their cage and 'invaded' the house. As I recall , we put mouse traps in the pantry to 'trap' those little rascals that got in there. I think we got rid of a few of them that way.  This room also leaked water around the windows every time it rained. Like the window in the other bedroom I put caulking around it, but to no avail. It seemed to leak even worse after I 'fixed' it. We finally had new windows installed to fix the problem. I think it got hit harder than any of the other bedrooms during the 1994 earthquake.

Mom:
Room #2 was Curtis' room when we moved into the house.  Soon Corey was his roommate with his crib.  The walls were white and the carpet was blue.  I eventually made Peanut quilts for their bunk beds and had blue curtains and valance.  We played musical rooms so much that I don't really remember who was in the room and what the changes were made except for the burber carpeting.

Cary:
Bedroom number two I think is the room I lived in the least. It was a cat den. I remember my GI Joes would break down the door to Barbie’s house in there. I also remember it being the room that the big white book shelf fell on Marné during the North Ridge Quake.
Strangely enough I remember that I lived in that room when I was working for Pacific Bell at my fancy (or at least I thought it was) job. That room was kind of a bummer. I remember I had my guitar in the corner and rarely played it cause I was under the delusion that I should have a “real” job.
I do remember the magic show with Maren’s annoying friend that lived on Shadybrook, but that’s probably just the pictures reminding me.
One good thing about this room (and the yellow room) was the patio cover access. Once I figured out how to pop the screen I could jump right down into the Johnson’s backyard without making a peep.

Corey:
I shared this bedroom with Curtis for many years before high school. I have baby pictures of me in a crib in this room. The walls were always white and we initially had this blue carpet with a pattern of bumps that I remember driving matchbox cars around. We had the creaky bunkbed in this room that we could rock back and forth on the top bunk. There was cardboard under the top mattress that we drew on and tore up from the bottom bunk. We had the old school desks that we restored while in this room--Curtis' was red and mine was blue. We regularly rearranged the furniture, sometimes with the bunkbed made, sometimes with individual beds. I can remember many Saturday afternoons stuck inside because I wouldn't clean my room, spent in this room. Our closet was over filled with old games and toys, bits of lego and lost pieces. We had the "woven woods" as a curtain, which made the room quite dark when lowered. We had the old particle board cabinet with the sliding doors that I think belonged to Curtis. I also remember the pillows that Emily made us that were corduroy on the front and faux sheepskin on the back, each with a letter "C" on the front. They had a velcro closure that we used so we could hide candy we bought with money from our paper routes. That way we could eat candy in bed.

Bedroom #1

 

 

Aftermath of the Northridge Earthquake in 1994.

 

 

 

Maren:

My first memories in this bedroom were when there was the very...busy...wallpaper of the mushroom village and woodland creatures.  It was fun wallpaper to study while lying in bed.  That is when I shared a room with Cary.  We all know the story of how after Dad would put us to bed and Cary would scare me by saying in a spooky voice, "Maren, I'm going to eat you."  I was not a fan.  We also had a brown record player in that room.  Marné tells me that I used to sing along while listening to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," although I have no memory of this.  I just remember listening to a record of a Strawberry Shortcake read-along book.

 

At some point, the mushroom village wallpaper came down and up went a navy blue wallpaper with a duck border running along the top of the wall, along with dark blue carpet.  It became Curtis and Corey's room when they were teens and even into college days or when Curtis returned from his mission before returning to BYU.  They shared the wooden bunk beds.  I have memories of laying on the top bunk while watching a sibling or two play Spy vs. Spy on Curtis' computer.  Cary eventually inherited that room while he was in high school. 

 

Finally, when I was a junior in high school I got the room.  I suppose it was the most coveted room, if for nothing else, it was the largest, so I was pretty happy to move in there.  I remember taking down the duck wallpaper and painting the room white, even the inside of the closet.  It was a fun project.  I had room for the sewing table, my new Ikea desk, and everything.  I was a happy camper.

Also of note, in the farthest corner of the room was the door to the attic, which wasn't really a door, but just a big painted board of plywood.  Way in the back of the attic were stored really old things like a crib, perhaps an old stroller, some old toys, while closer to the door were stored more recently used items like a taped up box of Corey's CDs while he was on his mission.  It was always a little dicey crawling in there as it was dark, dusty, there were nails sticking out of the beams, and there was always the fear of spiders or other creatures that tend to hang out in dark places.  When the wind blew, the plywood door would move back and forth, making a soft thudding noise that became natural background noise for whoever slept in there at the time.

Dad:
Bedroom #1 was known for the 'duck' wallpaper and was the boys bedroom most of the time as I recall. It always seemed to be cluttered with stuff strewn about the floor and on the beds, It had a small desk that was used for homework and studying. In later years, there was a keyboard and a couple of guitars, in the room, that were used by Cary. Then when Maren moved in as the boys went away to college and missions, it always seemed to be neat and tidy. I wonder if that had anything to do with the occupant at that time... Whenever it rained to any extent, water would leak in around the window. Whenever this happened, I would put towels on the window sills to soak up the water. l put caulking around the windows 3 or 4 times, but they still leaked just as bad. Nothing seemed to help, so we finally had new windows installed which fixed the problem. We had the same problems with the window in bedroom #2. The 1994 earthquake seemed to hit that room harder than the other bedrooms. I remember a big pile of stuff that fell out of the closet and also about everything else in the room except the bunk beds were in that pile. Writing this brings back many good (and some not so good) memories of the past.

Mom:

I think everyone  slept in this room at one time or another.  Marné was the first to decorate it.  Since she knew that I was not a fan of yellow, she decided to choose the color to see if I would let her have her choice.  Yellow walls and carpet and a yellow gingham quilt I made to finish the room.  Also bought white curtains,  this helped to cut the yellow!

 

Corey and Curtis shared the room when had dark blue wallpaper and a stripe of ducks.  Then there was the mushrooms and animals when Maren and Cary shared.  When most of you left Maren was back in the room and pulled down the wall paper and painted and made the room her own.  By this time we had the burber carpeting throughout the house.

Cary:
I remember the room that was originally Marné's for its yellow carpet. Maren and I shared it for a time. There was an odd bed I slept in. It was elevated so I had to get a running start to get on it. It was situated close enough to Maren's bed that I could jump from one to the other.

I also remember peeing on the yellow carpet once when I'd just gotten out of the tub. For some reason I couldn't hold it and reasoned in my 5 or 6 year old brain that it wouldn't matter being that it was yellow, kind of musty smelling and older than me. 

Corey:
My earliest memory of this bedroom is the "yellow" version of Marné's childhood. She had a bed with a brown headboard, a light pinkish nightstand, and a brown book case. I vaguely remember a record player in her room. She had a bunch of toys, including a Holly Hobbie playset that was a general store that I always wanted to play with. Then Maren and Cary shared the room and the mushroom critters wallpaper was put up. I remember their room was always a mess. I remember the room best as the blue room with the dark blue patterned wall paper and duck trim. We inherited some chunky wood furniture from the Staleys (I think). This included the bunk bed and dressers. Curtis had a big, old desk that may have been Grandpa Woolley's and I had the drafting table. Curtis had the Commodore64 and the TV he still has to this day. We would climb through the window to get on the patio cover. It seemed like our screen was always torn. I also recall Mom pulling Curtis off the top bunk several times at 5:30 in the morning when he wouldn't get up for seminary. I'm also pretty sure Cary shared the room with me for a while when Curtis left for college.

The Stairs

 

 

 

 

Maren:
When I was in high school, if I stretched out my arms, I could almost touch the walls on each side of the stairs, so they must have been a little over 6 feet wide.  I can't believe I don't remember exactly how many stairs there were, because I'm sure I often counted them as I came up and down them each day.  I'd guess somewhere around 14 or 15.  As I got older, I think I was able to leap up or down the stairs, 3 at a time.

They were, of course, covered in the infamous Red Shag carpet for most of the time, but then they got a makeover and got the white carpet.  The black railing that was on the right side was also painted white, along with the railing at the top of the stairs, that was often used to hang towels to dry (or to tie a rope to with the other end tied to the door knob of one of the bedroom doors to torture and trap a younger sibling).

The staircase was the place to store our belongings when we were too lazy to carry them upstairs.  Piles of freshly cleaned laundry that Mom had folded for us would await us there, as well as any backpacks, books, or general junk that needed to be put away.  If we had to vacuum the stairs, we had to eventually carry all the stuff up and dump it into whatever room it belonged in.

Vacuuming the stairs was a serious chore since it was done with that bulky Electolux vacuum.  I'm sure I developed some muscle hauling that thing up and down the stairs.

One of my earliest memories as a child was after Dad had put me to bed.  I would sneak out of my bedroom, pose my stuffed animals and dolls on the top stair or two, and pretend to be taking a group photo of them.  I had to keep quiet, as Mom and Dad were usually downstairs watching TV.

The top of the stairs was a perfect place to do homework, play a game with another person, or assemble Lego structures - the possibilities were limitless.  It was just a relatively comfortable place to sit and do something as a kid.  Although it was a little tricky if someone was doing something there and you had to climb over them to go up or down the stairs. 

The bottom of the stairs was also a very convenient place to pose for pictures (see photos above), as well as to fold newspapers with Dad on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Because of it's width and straightness, it was a perfect staircase to slide down.  Wearing a sleeping bag was the best and fastest way to go.

Corey:

The social center of the house was the open family room and kitchen. The geographic center, however, was the wide staircase. I remember Mom saying how much she liked how wide the stairs were. I’m not sure if this was because she liked the space while walking up and down them—you could have one person walking up and one person walking down at the same time—or because you could put lots of stuff on them and still have room to walk up and down. The stairs were the spot you picked up your clean, folded clothes. It was where stray papers and toys were put to be taken up to our bedrooms later. It was also a play area. The top of the stairs were a great place to play Lego. When Jason lived with us we built the yellow Lego castle and invented a simple role playing game where we had one person attack the castle and another defend, complete with mounted knights and a catapult. During sleepovers we also found ways to slide down them in our sleeping bags. I even remember a recurrent dream when I was really young where I would fall down the stairs in slow motion in the dark, only to wake up before I hit the bottom. There was the iron railing on one side that was loose most of the time from someone pulling on it and dislodging the screws that were only in drywall. Dad fixed it several times but I’m not sure it was ever truly stable. Amazingly, the iron railing at the top by the kids’ bedrooms and bathrooms was always sturdy and never broke. That railing saw a lot of use as a towel and laundry holder. I remember running my matchbox cars across that railing, top and bottom. 

The Backyard

The Apricot Tree

Corey and Curtis

Corey

 Corey and Curtis

 

Corey

Curtis

Mom:
The backyard was a blank slate.  We had a patio and patio cover put in soon after moving into the house.  There was also a small patio outside the sliding door from the living room and a path at the side of the house where we stored the trash cans (The small patio would later be removed when the sewing room was added in 1978). Dad put in the sprinklers in the backyard and then he and Vic Staley rolled sod out.  Grandpa and Grandma Judd came to visit one Fall and Grandpa built the brick wall and bought fill dirt for the vegetable garden area, put in a water spicket, compost and planted a winter vegetable garden.  They also planted the roses and  the olive tree in the front yard.

The people behind us decided to build a pool and insisted on raise the height of the back fence to 6 feet. Well, it was 7 feet so Dad and Grandpa measured the fence and cut off 12 inches so it would be 6 feet.  We lost our "view", we had also painted the lower fence and Dad insisted that the new fence should also be painted.  The neighbor was not very nice and came one afternoon with two gallons of paint and dropped them at our front door.  He also didn't build the new fence properly so the "crossbar" was too low.  This is why Oscar was always able to climb over the fence into their yard and escape for a walk around the neighborhood.  

 

Dad also planted one cherry tree that never had one piece of fruit on it and very few leaves.  Finally it was simply a stick and after much prodding he finally removed it.  We also tried to grow a lemon tree, but it also died.  Our greatest success was the apricot tree by the sewing room window.  We had lots of fresh apricots and frozen apricot jam over the years.  In fact when we sold the house in June, Dad wanted to have frozen apricot jam to take to the new house.  Since I was busy working and packing up the house to move I taught him how to make the jam so I could continue packing and working.

 

The houses in the neighborhood were so close together that you could hear everything in your neighbors yard.  One of the most annoying things was hearing the Johnsons' older dog bark every time I was in the kitchen.  One day I read that you could train a dog not to bark by spraying him with water, so I went onto the patio and with the hose reached over the fence and sprayed him with water.  He would shut up for a while, but still continued to bark until he died.

Maren:
The memories that I have of the backyard are from when it was already very mature.  It is shocking to see the photos of when the house was first bought and to see how tiny the apricot tree and the Ash tree near the Johnson’s backyard were in the beginning.

The patio was shady thanks to the slatted patio cover. I think at one time it got a new coat of paint by Corey or Curtis one summer, when it was starting to look a little trashy due to peeling paint and a broken slat or two.  The cats would often take refuge from us by climbing up there, or to simply sunbathe.  There was easy access to the top for them by way of the apricot tree or the fence on the opposite side.  There was a long skinny counter outside of the kitchen window where we would put the cats’ food dishes so Oscar wouldn’t eat their food.  This counter eventually got warped and ruined, as well.  I don’t remember if it was ever repaired or replaced before the move to Venus St.  When I was really young, there was a small plastic yellow play kitchen out there, too.  I’m wondering if it had originally been Marné’s because I only remember it being really old, dusty, and partially broken.  There were maybe a few plates and a piece or two of play food, so it wasn’t much fun to play with.  There was also a wooden picnic table and benches that may have bought near the time of first moving into the house, but my only memories are of a wobbly, rickety, sun bleached table that would give you splinters if you weren’t careful.  A large plant pot was out there, too.  I remember planting morning glories in there one year (possibly for Young Women Personal Progress.  You know, to understand that faith is like a seed…) and being pretty proud of my accomplishment in getting something to grow fairly well.

The sliding glass door from the kitchen out to the patio was often dirty with Oscar’s drool or nose marks, likely from when he would whine to come inside.  The screen door was pretty gnarled up and at one point had been “repaired” with a thicker metal gate attached to the bottom.  I’m pretty sure Oscar deformed even that.

Dad had one of those spherical black charcoal barbeques out there as well.  We’d barbeque on the 4^th of July (the one day of the year that we also bought soda – more specifically A&W Root Beer).

The back fence had 3 bushes lining it, as well as the stick that was supposedly a cherry tree. The fence wasn’t very high, so the cats would often scale that fence to go roam the neighborhood (Oscar made the leap over that fence a time or two, as well). Once one of the animals left a half dead mouse near the fence and I was pretty distraught about it.  Yuck.   In the back corner near the garden was the area designated for Oscar to use as a bathroom.  Picking up his dried poop was a never-ending chore.

The garden wall was made of tan bricks maybe 2 feet high, with a few little brick steps in one spot.  Tomatoes, green beans, and corn were the things I remember most growing in there.  I loved to pick the green beans, eating several here and there while picking.  In the garden area closer to the fence that led to the front yard, it was a little less kempt.  There was a Concord grape plant that did actually produce grapes, despite being sort of forgotten.  I don’t remember actually doing much with the grapes, though.  There were a couple more cypress trees as well as a little shed that was filled with who-knows-what. 

Along the side of the house near the chimney was a woodpile.  I don’t remember Dad or anyone else going to fetch and chop wood, and I only remember ever having a fire in the living room fireplace once or twice ever, so those wood scraps must have been very old and a great breeding spot for bugs of all sorts.  I’m sure someone told me that there were black widow spiders living in there, so I was always a little wary of walking around back near the woodpile.

The apricot tree bore lots of fruit in the summer, but we had to try and pick it before the birds started pecking out little bits in every piece of fruit. The cats probably helped to scare away the birds occasionally, which helped, but didn’t completely solve the problem.  Eating a warm, perfectly ripe apricot off of that tree is another sweet (no pun intended) memory.   We would just throw the stones from the fruit on the ground under the tree.  If we were lucky to pick a surplus of apricots, jam would be made. 

The grass was quite weedy.  Several times I attempted to keep those weeds at bay, but it was too overwhelming.  Perhaps it was after my morning glory success that I set to work to create a flowerbed along the fence right outside the back door.  In the picture of Friskie above that may have been the area right there behind that rock border.  However, I never finished that project.

At one time, I remember Cary, Matt Johnson, and some other friends creating some sort of club house in Matt’s yard right up next to our yard. 

Dad:

The back yard started out with nothing but the Ash tree in the southwest corner which was planted by the development company. I installed the sprinkler system myself after carefully planning it out so it provided full coverage. The reason for the photos of the work in progress, though, was to determine where all the underground pipes were in case they broke and needed to be repaired. I never had to worry about that because they always seemed to work OK. I also installed the sod, which looked good for the first 2 or 3 years. Then it seemed to go down hill and weeds kind of took over. I didn't take very good care of it in later years, except for watering and mowing it. In fact I dug up some the grass (the area directly back from the kitchen) and replanted it. It too, looked good for awhile until more weeds took over. 
 

Over the years the apricot and cherry trees were planted along with grape vines and other miscellaneous plants and shrubs. We always had a pretty good garden although weeds would threaten to take over and sometimes did. One year, I planted a "winter garden" that included broccoli, cabbages, and brussels sprouts, etc. They produced quite well, but were taken over and partly eaten by various kinds of bugs. We usually had good crops of beans, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, cucumbers and zucchini squash. The grapes never did very well probably because of a lack of water.

 

The patio cover was a  big improvement in regard to providing a nice shady area rather than the direct sun through the back windows and sliding door. Grandpa Judd built the back wall and brought in some good topsoil, which made a nice garden spot. The back yard didn't get the care and maintenance that it should have, or it would have looked better. About the only things that did real well was the apricot tree and the garden.   

 

Corey:

The most used part of the backyard was the patio outside the sliding glass door from the kitchen.  The “picnic table” was out there as long as I can remember. I don’t know where or when we got it, but over the years the stain chipped off and it got more and more rickety. There was also a shelf outside the kitchen window, opposite the kitchen sink.  It had several pots on it and wasn’t used for much else. Oscar’s food and water sat beneath it along with his dog carrier/dog house.  I made a macrame pot holder in 1st grade that hung near the shelf for several years. I can barely remember the patio before the patio cover was put in, mainly because there were plastic pots covering the metal brackets for the posts that stuck out of the concrete.  The patio cover provided nice shade. I remember Curtis and I, and later Cary, using the ladder to climb up on the patio cover. Someone put a piece of plywood over in the corner where we would climb on. It was tricky to get up there with the thin wood slats—you had to be careful to walk on the support beams and not on the wood slats alone as they could break. I think I had a telescope up there at one time, looking at the moon.

 

The backyard lawn was never very good. The tree in the corner of the yard grew quite large and by the time we moved, covered much of the lawn in shade.  Along the back fence there were some shrubs that we occasionally pruned, and the cherry tree, which was essentially a stick that had a few leaves but never produced a single cherry. At one time, Curtis and I built a clubhouse along the back fence, complete with a hinged door and two separate rooms. I remember trying to lift a piece of plywood into place for the roof. There was a nail sticking out of the plywood and when I shifted under the weight of the wood, the nail found my ear, puncturing the back of it.  It bled a bit but was surprisingly painless. I can also recall when we built the back fence, for some reason the Hurleys had a problem with it—I guess it was too tall. I remember them being back there cutting a good foot from the top of the fence.  And when we were building the club house, their one son heard the hammering and for some reason got a hammer and started banging on the other side of the fence.  

 

I also recall when Grandpa Judd came to visit and helped Dad build the block wall for the garden. The garden was great to have. It seems like Dad always had something planted and was always watering it with the hose.  I took tomatoes and carrots from time to time to snack on.  We discovered the grape vine later and ate quite a few grapes though they required a bit of work as they had seeds and tougher skin. I also remember that for a while there was an electric wire along the wall to protect the garden, I think from the cats but maybe from something else. After Cary grabbed it a few times I think Dad packed it in and figured it wasn’t worth it. I vaguely remember a joke about Cary having curly hair because he grabbed the wire and couldn’t let go.

 

At the end of the garden by the fence and gate to the front yard, there was a rickety wooden shed. I think there was fertilizer and a few other odds and ends in there. I remember climbing on top of it a few times, which was easy to do with the fence right there. There was also a wood pile along the wall outside the sewing room which was essentially scraps from the addition to the house and the patio cover. It never seemed to get smaller and was a good source for materials when we had different projects. There were a lot of spiders in there.

 

The apricot tree was one of the best things about the back yard. The blossoms were always pretty in the spring and we got a surprisingly large number of apricots every year. Apricot jam from the home grown apricots was one of my favorites.