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.
No comments:
Post a Comment