My Life in the Little Brown House, part 13: Parlor and Downstairs Bedroom

At the northeast corner of the parlor was a small entryway having a rather large mirror just facing the front door. To the north side was a closet for hanging wraps — those that were for “dress-up” occasions. The house had a good-sized front porch that extended the width of the house and was I suppose 8 to 10 feet deep. It was bounded by a solid ledge perhaps 30 inches tall and the porch roof was supported by a number of large pillars. In the summertime screens were put up to keep out insects — these were taken down in the winder and stored somewhere out of the weather. There was some kind of furniture on the porch, perhaps a hanging swing, but I don’t recall very clearly. A sort series of broad steps led down from the porch to the sidewalk outside. This sidewalk was a place where as children we would play hopscotch, marking out on it the pattern for the game.

The remaining room downstairs in the little brown house was the bedroom my parents occupied, on the north side of the house between the stairway leading upstairs and the entryway near the front door. This room was my parents’ bedroom all during the years in the little brown house till the move to the farm, but at times it also served as a place where some of the children may have slept while quite young. I have the distinct memory of an incident as a quite young child in a crib bed placed in front o the door leading to the stairs (which was in the northwest corner of the room). From the position of the bed obstructing access to the stairway door, the stairway was not in general use signifying that the upstairs changes had yet to be made. The bed was one of the kind in which one side can be raised or lowered. I was supposed to be taking a nap and instead I was standing up in the crib. My mother came in and told me that I was supposed to be napping. I remember nothing before or after her coming in — a curious little snippet of recollection from the time I must have been not more than 2 or 3 years old. Any recollections I have before I was 6 years old are few indeed and this may be my earliest one.

Beside any crib or cribs for small children, the furniture in the room included an iron frame bedstead for my parents and a dresser. It may also have contained my mother’s cedar chest — I don’t have a very clear picture of where she had this in the little brown house. If it was in this bedroom it would have been in front of the windows on the north side of the room. On the east side of the room was a walk-in closet.

My mother kept her jewelry in one of the smaller drawers in the dresser and on one occasion my brother Vincent got into the jewelry and carried some of it out of the room, indeed out of the house. I seem to recall that the watch my mother had (which had been the gift her father gave each of his children at about the age of 21) was dropped in the vacant lot to the south of the house, where it was found in a somewhat damaged condition. The watch was one that was sort of pinned to a dress when in use and I don’t recall my mother ever wearing it — in fact I sort of think it wasn’t functional.

Another recollection I have of my parents’ bedroom was, as a young child, using it as a place where I dressed and undressed myself at the beginning and end of the day. The place where I did this was just inside the door to the room, next to the foot of the bed. When undressing I piled up my clothes in a neat little pile to be put on again the next morning. My guess is that we changed our attire perhaps once a week — maybe getting fresh underwear, stockings etc. on Sunday morning. Certainly there wasn’t the change in clothes that occurred with our children or grandchildren.