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.