Passions in Prose |
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In My Grandma's Basement |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
In My Grandma's Basement "When I was young (a mere child) I would sometimes occupy my Grandma's vast basement; in memories it was so big and interesting and I so small and curious, a perfect match." When I was a little boy I remember playing catch with my younger brother and purposely having him stand in front of the basement door so I could throw him the ball and when he missed it would go tumbling down the long span of wooden stairs leading into the basement, and when he would start down the steps to retrieve the ball I would quickly turn off the basement light and close the basement door just to scare my younger brother, in retrospect that wasn't very nice nor safe for him to be descending the steps and suddenly have the light go out, you could say I was stupid, and I would agree with that assessment. I remember one summer when me and my brother were staying with Grandma and she was using one of those old, wringer type washing machines in the basement to squeeze the water from the clothes into the open basin and her finger or hand got pulled into the wringer and I can't remember the rest of the story but I know she let out a yell and it surely hurt. I remember my Grandma not going into the basement too many times, possibly from bad memories of that washing machine, or possibly because she was old and didn't like going up and down the stairs. I remembera place in the basement where Grandma would storesome of the jars to make the concord grape jellies when she would pick grapes from her grapevine near the alley in her back yard right next to the garage. I remember my older sister telling me that they stayed at Grandma's one summer and they were raising chicks and they kept them in the basement. I can remember two smaller rooms in the back part of the basement; the one on the left that stored coal in times past, when the home used a coal heating heater and the one on the left was a storage room that contained a large old chest that was full of womans dresses and old photo's, and my sisters would tell us stories about an aunt in our family that used to live in Chicago and supposedly they found some photo's of her sitting on the lap of gangsters like Al Capone, which led to a later conversation with Grandma where they ask her if our aunt was a floozy, a subject Grandma never commented on; I for one could never believe our family had been involved in illegal activities. I remember the door and the steps that went from the basement to the back yard, and it seemed sometimes their were steps and other times they were gone as if once you descended into the basement there would be no escape if you went up the long span of stairs to the kitchen and that door was locked. I remember my younger brother not wanting to play too much in the basement, maybe not appreciating the times I locked him in the basement. All in all, it was an interesting and fun place. JamesLee 3/9/17 |
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Bluesy Socrateaser Member Elite
since 2002-11-07
Posts 2417In The Mirror |
A grand tale to include the place of my birth. ...just bein' Bluesy |
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