Saying goodbye to my childhood home

A few years ago my parents decided to custom build a new house.  They saw their dream become a reality in September when they moved into a gorgeous new home about a mile from where I grew up.  Although I'm ecstatic for them and truly love the new house, I am quite melancholy about saying goodbye to my childhood home.  They officially closed on selling the old house on Monday.  We moved into the house when I was 6 and my brother David was 3.  It's hard to believe that someone else is now living in the house that has so many memories for my family. 

Moving day in 1986 was quite memorable because we had McDonalds for dinner - a rare treat in our home.   David and I ate dinner on the floor in the family room (no furniture yet) and left our burgers on the floor to go upstairs for a minute.  When we came back, the burgers were gone and the dog was quite happy to have discovered our dinner on the carpet.  My brother and I were horrified to have missed out on our special meal!

When my parents began to prepare the house to sell, they removed all of the wallpaper and painted the walls.  Under the wallpaper, they found massive amounts of drawing and notes from me and David.  When they first put up the wallpaper with my Mimi & Papi (mom's parents), they allowed us to draw all over the wall before they hung up the wallpaper.  The drawings are hysterical.  Apparently David and I got into a fight partially through the drawing adventure and the notes quickly went from being silly to insulting each other.  We also imagined that whoever discovered our notes would be from hundreds of years in the future so we wrote the date and year next to all of our notes. 

I loved sharing a wall between my room and my brother's.  We used to stay up late communicating through knocks on the wall in a very elaborate code.  Many pets were loved in our home: the dog Abby, guinea pig Patches, frog Natasha, cockatiel Wally, turtle Boxer, and many parakeets - Luke, Fifer and Sunny are the only ones whose names I can remember.  My mom tried to resuscitate Luke and even performed mouth to beak CPR, to no avail. 

So many sleepovers where we played Ouji Board, truth or dare and froze someone's bra, birthday parties, and massive high school parties when my parents "trusted" us by ourselves for the first time (big mistake).   The incredible treehouse in the backyard built by my dad and Papi - and the endless afternoons and picnics spent in the treehouse.  Playing softball, slip and slide, catching fireflies and foursquare with my brother in the yard.   Tossing spaghetti on the ceiling to see if it would stick.  Creating a ridiculous marshmellow, peanut butter, chocolate chip concotion in the microwave during the blizzard of 1995.  Playing school with my brother, although I doubt he was allowed to talk much!   Sliding down the steps on a mattress (not sure how we got away with that).  Awesome games of hide and seek and sardines.   Throwing balls in the house and breaking things and getting in trouble. 

Family game night, holiday dinners, crazy Rosh Hashanah dancing (attention Melissa Hart & Josh Weiner!).    Making chocolate chip pancakes with enough chocolate chips that it felt like you were stirring rocks into the batter.  My dad's famous 6 foot long sub sandwiches.   We did a random NBC interview about being Jewish in Richmond and accidentally sang the Shabbat prayers to the Hanukkah tunes - what model Jews!  My parents' 80th birthday party in the snow was a true highlight.  Their birthdays are 3 days apart (same year), so when they turned 40 they had a 80th birthday party and had their friends all dress up as though they were all turning 80.  They served prune juice martinis!

When I was in elementary school, I organized all of the neighborhood kids into a massive production of a 3 ring circus.  I was of course the ringleader (and David was a lion) and forced everyone to participate in endless rehearsals, costume design, dress rehearsals, etc.  I became way too bossy and they all revolted the week of our performance.  I had to apologize to everyone and ask them to participate - which they did - and we had a terrific performance for 50+ neighbors.

Although a house is just a house, there are so many memories associated with my childhood home.  I know that the memories will stay with me forever, but I can't help but feel sad that baby boy #2 will never be inside my childhood home and Sam will probably not even remember it.  But, when one door closes, another door opens - and I know that my family will create many new memories in the new house. 

Mom giving Sam a bath in the kitchen of their old house (Sept 09)

Dad & flying Sam in living room of old house (Sept 09)

So on that note, I'm closing the (physical) door to my parents old house.  However, I'm curious about other memories my friends and family might have about the house.  If you were ever in my childhood home in Richmond - I welcome your memories too, so please share!

Lucy & Sam in old house kitchen (Sept 09)