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.
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.
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.
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