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.
