Home Sweet Home

You've already read my recent blogs relating to my childhood. While my early life wasn't the most pleasant, I still had dreams. We all do, right? Here is a sampling of the houses I always wanted in my childhood days. First of all, the lovely dollhouse. Every little girl should have one of these to cherish.
Of course there's always the Barbie house. My Barbie houses were made out of boxes... I'm certain others out there can relate. How many of you had Barbie and G.I. Joe get married??I always, always, always wanted a playhouse. I still do. When I saw other girls with playhouses I wished I was them.And what's childhood without the trusty treehouse? While we never lived where there were large trees in our yard, I did have some friends who had treehouses here and there. There was nothing better than climbing into the treehouse and escaping all of the turmoil.

One time several of the neighborhood kids (including me) decided to build an underground "fort." We lived near a sub-division that was under construction so we "re-appropriated" necessary "building supplies" to our location. We had the necessary 2x4's, plywood, and of course insulation (since in was winter in Salt Lake City). We worked for days digging the frozen ground until there was a hole deep enough to fit 5 or 6 of us. After lining the hole with the insulation (fiber side up so it would be nice and soft), we covered the hole with the 2x4's, then the plywood, followed by the dirt we had dug up. It was fantastic!

The next afternoon we all headed for our fort. We had our AM radios, snacks we had swiped from our houses, and flashlights. We were set. We all climbed in and probably didn't last more than half an hour. Since it was nice and soft and warm in our fort, we all took off our coats. Before long all of us started itching. Next thing we knew it felt like there were little slivers all over us and the itching got worse... and started to hurt, too. We had to bail out! What a complete drag!!! We were so ticked off we ended up tearing it apart the next day. So much for that fort.

Childhood is a magical time. In spite of all that may be thrown our way, we still dream. Perhaps that's part of what gets us through the tough times.