Transitional Home

I was nearly 8 when we left Texas and headed north, back to that little woodsy state called Connecticut. It was a different small town this time, whose name is not given to protect the anonymously innocent. The first house we moved into was a rental, a long, two story brown shingled house that had a half circle driveway that pulled up right in front of the front door.

This is where my obsession with houses and all things beautiful really began; I loved the layout of the house, how enormous the kitchen was with its brick archway over the stove and oven and the island in the center. The two staircases and interconnecting rooms that allowed you to go from one end of the house to the other without barely using the hallways. There was an upstairs play area, reserved specifically for the children to use, almost like the nursery the kids have in Peter Pan. I thought it was so cool. This room was connected to mine via a small interior storage room which scared the living crap out of me. I was convinced it was haunted and to go through it, I would open the door, timidly peak inside, then make a mad dash for the opposite side.

It was here that I met my two best friends who lived just down the street. We were inseperable, constantly at each others houses making our parents’ lives a nightmare. It was also here that we got our first puppy, a golden retriever named Shelby who we got from a breeder. She was the quietest of the litter, alittle shy and I took to her right away. I demanded we get that puppy, despite the general family consensus was to get another more lively puppy.

My dad had asked if I wanted to go grocery shopping with him and my little brother. Not falling for the bait I said no, of course I didn’t want to. (what fun was THAT?!) When the car pulled in and the little blond ball of fur rolled out of the front seat, instead of groceries, I was so excited. They picked my puppy! I wanted to name her Rose but being that I was 8 and not very creative with names (I think I named all cats Kitty or Fluffy, even if they had names of their own) so I was overpowered and we settled on Shelby, the name of Julia Robert’s character in Steel Magnolias and the town my Grandparents had a house in.

We then spent all our time playing with this very happy playful puppy (who apparently was not so shy) and she became a central figure in our lives for the next 12 years. Us kids were in charge of training her so we took turns walking her down to the end of the cul-de-sac on her leash (aka taking her off the leash and dragging it on the ground so she would follow because she wouldn’t walk while attached to the leash) and congratulating her when she peed or pooped. It was a very exciting training, but we were young and any kind of responsibility was a big thing for us.

I don’t remember much about our neighborhood, outside of their being a large lake nearby that we spent time “fishing” (aka catch and release) with my father and the road I walked along to get to my friends’ respective houses. I do remember our neighbors who lived across the street, an older couple with a little dog named Pepper. We often petsat for this dog, it spending the night at our house on several occasions. The problem with little dogs is that they are yippy, and this one was no exception; it barked and barked and annoyed us all to tears. My mother, being the cook that she was, made spaghetti one night and she had some cheese to go along with it. Pepper loooooved cheese, so my mom decided she was going to give her some. Now I  know that I’m my mothers daughter specifically because of this incident: my mom knew that the cheese was much too spicy for a dog but gave it to her anyway because the damn dog had been annoying her for two days straight and she wanted revenge. The poor dog coughed all night. I think it learned quickly never to beg for cheese from my mom again.

After just one year we moved again, but this time it was only to across town, luckily staying within the same elementary school district so I didn’t have that much change to adjust to. I was so used to moving boxes and moving trucks that it wasn’t that big of a deal to reload my bedroom back into the boxes I used to play forts with my brother in and find myself redecorating another room in yet another house.