Old House, Warm Memories

Dusting off the collection of photos that

1)grace our family room wall， I lingered over the water color painting I had done of the old house， a gift to Bill， before that house was torn down to make room for the new one.

It seems like decades ago that we occupied that small two bedroom， gray 2)sided home. Memories continued to flow freely as I stared at the home that Bill and I had lived in for over 23 years， and also the place where our two daughters grew up.

In the painting， the house is 3)depicted in all its summer time glory—4)lush pink， red， white and purple flowers overflowed in the flower beds that， by August， resembled tall colorful bushes in all their flowering 5)finery. The proof was there right on the wall. When we bought the house we fell in love with its 6)cozy， 7)livedin charm.

What we learned was that old-fashioned charm 8)translated into lots of repairs. That old house was far from perfect， but the memories 9)invoked are 10)priceless. I’m particularly remembering back to when the girls were young.

It was raining one Saturday afternoon and they wanted to play on their swing set. Bill went to the garage and returned with 4 huge round 11)eye hooks and his 12)trusty 13)power drill. He went to work drilling the 14)heavy duty 15)bolts into the frame of the kitchen doorways. Then he went back outside to 16)retrieve the swings. A few seconds later the girls were happily swinging from the kitchen doorways—laughing and 17)squealing with delight over their rainy day adventure.

Another time， Bill came home with an over-sized plastic slide. I foolishly asked him where he thought he was going to put it as our house was way too small to accommodate such a big toy. He gave me a look like I was the 18)loony one and told me it would fit just fine in the 19)frontroom. When it was discovered that the slide wasn’t 20)slick enough Bill had a solution—some baby powder sprinkled on the surface! It was smooth sliding all the way. Afterwards， my clever 21)hubby 22)vacuumed up the powder on the rug， and the front-room was 23)none the worse for wear.

I guess the reason for 24)flashing back to these memories is the fact that we are now grandparents. This new turning point in our lives has definitely brought out the kid in us. Oh， and I’m also looking at the familiar hooks in the door frame. We have a double doorway that divides the family room and my home office. Bill sized it up one day and decided it would be a great spot to hang a swing for our granddaughters. At first I 25)balked at the idea. I resisted， but then I remembered the fun the swinging sisters had and I 26)relented. The bolts were screwed in and a pink baby swing gets hooked up whenever our little angel Avery wants to go for a ride. Our new house is a perfect home compared to the one we lived in for so many years. It is big， beautiful and can handle any ideas that my dear hubby can 27)concoct.

Last Christmas the girls had another painting done， this one of the new house. It is hung right next to the old one， and in between them is a silver heart that says， “Home is where you hang your heart. It doesn’t matter if your house is big or small， 28)fancy or 29)plain. It takes love， laughter and joy to make a house a home.” I’m looking forward to the years ahead with my grandkids， those here and those yet to be born. I hope our house will be a home they’ll have fond memories of， whether they’ll be sliding， swinging or dancing their way into the future.

家，心之所在

在擦拭著那些把我們家房間墻壁裝飾得漂亮雅致的照片時，我在一幅水彩畫前停了下來。這幅以老房子為主題的畫作是我在拆掉老房子、建造新房子之前畫的，是我送給丈夫比爾的禮物。

那時我們住在一間兩居室的灰色小屋里，回想起來仿佛已經(jīng)是幾十年前的事了。我凝視著畫中的小屋，無數(shù)回憶不斷涌現(xiàn)——比爾和我在小屋里生活了23年多，兩個女兒也是在那里長大的。

畫上呈現(xiàn)的是夏令時節(jié)老房子周圍的盛況——花壇上遍布大片粉紅色、紅色、白色和紫色的花朵，八月里，眾花齊放，一簇簇高高的花叢就像五彩華服一般。證據(jù)就在墻上。當(dāng)年買下這間房子時，我們就愛上了它的“魅力”——舒適愜意，充滿生活氣息。

后來我們才知道，這種老式風(fēng)格的“魅力”意味著大量的修葺工作。那間老房子并不完美，不過它所喚起的回憶卻極其珍貴。我對女兒們還很小時發(fā)生的事情仍記憶猶新。

一個下著雨的周六下午，女兒們想玩秋千。比爾去了趟車庫，拿回來四個又大又圓的鏈鉤以及他那臺可靠耐用的動力鉆。他先在廚房門框上鉆上巨大的螺栓，接著到外面把秋千裝置搬進(jìn)屋。不一會兒，女孩們就開心地在廚房門框上蕩起了秋千——這一雨天的玩樂讓她們欣喜得又笑又叫。

還有一次，比爾帶回了一座超大規(guī)格的塑料滑梯。我傻傻地問他打算把它放在哪里，因為我們的房子實在太小，無法容納那樣一件大玩具。他像看傻子一樣看了我一眼，告訴我說，那座滑梯剛好可以放在客廳里。……