I was often tasked with watching the children and keeping them occupied while the big folks could visit. I was big on story telling and treasure maps but what my cousins and siblings have told me they remember most vividly was the closet trips.
I would gather them all into my bedroom closet. It was small, but so were we. It was dark, which suited my purposes just fine. Once they were stuffed in, and sitting with their legs crossed I had them close their eyes. I was about to take them to a secret place that only I was privy to. My voice was as important as my words.
I pushed a hidden button and we began to descend. Down, down, down we went and they could feel the motion of the secret elevator. Upon arrival at our destination only I could open my eyes. They were to keep theirs closed shut or there would be catastrophic consequences. Even in the dark I could see those eyes shut tighter than a window on a stormy day. I described what I saw in great detail. Monsters, their eyes of neon colors, their dragon shaped body with menacing claws. The silence of my audience was deafening. I described the road, the trees that were upside down. The grass that was blue and the sky that was green were the backdrop for the animals that scurried about. I told them of the dangers that lurked but assured them I knew the traps. I went on and on as long as their fidgety bodies could take it. I also monitored their degree of scared. With an uncanny sense of timing I knew when it was time to get back on the magic elevator and bring them home. Of course when we arrived back they opened their eyes at the count of three. The filed out quiet and subdued, recounting the scary adventure they just enjoyed. I brought them downstairs triumphant in my ability to weave fantasy into their life.
I sometimes think that my career in sales started way back then in the small bedroom closet in our humble little house.
This explains allot. If this was the closet in the back of the bedroom that faced the woods and the monkey tree where Jeff and I and Guy were always playing, facing the garage and the workshop where Dad built my blue bike then I have to tell you this closed scared the Hell out of me. I always felt their were monsters in that closed. I think it got so bad that I had Mom change the rooms around. I vaguely remember the boys being mad at me because we took their room in the front of the house and Mom gave them the room with the "CLOSET" I always felt that someone lived in that closet that shouldn't have been there and now I know why. I know that you were probably coming up with all sorts of ways to entertain the six of us and that Must have been the chore of the century After we moved into the front of the house. We meaning all three of us girls I don't think Laurie was born yet I created an escape route up through the attic and out on the roof over the top and jumping off the roof outside the bathroom. I don't even know why I invented that escape route, but I remember going over those plans again and again in my imagination. How did we share that room with three girls. I remember at one time we all cycled together as girls would do and you had such a hard time with it. Oh how we made that room our own and rearranged it in every possible way. I remember every Christmas we would tape the white plastic candles in the windows with the red glowing bulbs. It was a tradition that was never missed. I remember one Christmas that Dad made a manger with baby Jesus Mary and Joesph and the three kings. He cut the figures out of wood and then pasted them with the life- size images. It looked so real. One time I went out in the Manger because I was very sad. Everyone was looking for me and I knew they were I could here them calling but I did not answer. I lay down by the manger and the snow was falling and I felt so close to GOD and so safe and so holy lying there with the Three kings Jesus Mary and Joesph even though they were two dimensional pieces of wood with images pasted on them they seemed so real in spirit. I think Mom finally found me because she always knew where to look
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