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Finish line draws near

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Finish line draws near

Tonight will be the last night I ever sleep in our little house on Primrose Drive.  This long mortgage process and new construction, nearing the end, and so is my journey in the little house with the red metal roof.  The POD sits in my driveway loaded with our den furniture and a bedroom.  My house is full of boxes and bags, and walking down the hall to my office is an adventure.

 

Despite annual clean out the junk days, we still accumulated a lot of stuff the last 38 years.  Things once deemed heirloom quality have now been reduced to "what as I thinkin" and thrown away, not worth the trouble to pack.  I was hoping to be out of here a couple of days ago and in the Extended Stay, but that just didn't work out.  To be honest I dragged packing just to stay a few more nights.

 

All that is left is the master bedroom, and a dining room, easy pickings in the moving business.  My office is still open, allowing me to type this to my friends on FICO.  I emptied the desk and bookshelves earlier today.  I'm gonna leave the desk on the street for someone.  It is too big and too heavy to get up the 2nd floor where the office will be in my new house.  My desktop PC  and "periphels" (fancy word for printer, and montior,) the only items making the move from the primrose office to new.

 

Tomorrow I will be unplugged, and left with just my Ipad.  I walked through the barren den a while ago, my wife sitting in front of the flat screen on a directors chair (that has been here since day 1) watching a movie.  It reminded me of our first months here at Primrose, when we watched TV on a bean bag chair in front of a 13 inch tv ( but it was color!) that only picked up 3 fuzzy channels you got up to change.  That was just as well because most evenings we had "other" things to do back then. Our den at the time was the bean bag, and 2 hand me down sitting chairs my folks gave us.  The TV sat on shadow box table thing that DW brought with her when we married.  But hey, we were in a NEW house,and that was much more than most 22 year old newlyweds had.

 

I called out to her when I came by,

 

"so why ya wanna watch a 50 inch flat screen from 1 foot away?  You Mr. Magoo?"  (you have to be old to know who he is)

 

"Cos this is all we have in here"

 

"well tomorrow the TV and sound system will be packed, and we'll be in the Extended Stay watchin tv"

 

"I know" her face lookin like this -Smiley Sad

 

"You know baby, your fingerprints are everywhere on this house.  The front flower bed, the bedrooms, kitchen, den, you did so much to make this a nice home for 38 years.  Everywhere I look I see you."  The thought of anybody coming in here and changing anything the way she has it makes me want to shout, "don't touch that!"  The new owners have already said changes are coming.  I don't care if THEIR name is on the deed, they can't go around changin stuff!

 

The house became dated a long time ago, but she never complained, instead she fixed it up best she could with what she had.

 

All my life I've had the ability to connect to places.  My boyhood home and neighborhood in Norfolk still pulls me, ball fields my son grew up playing baseball on, historic battlefields, and locations from famous movies ( I once stopped at the "Field of Dreams" in Iowa when passing through on a motorcycle tour.)  And now Primrose was going to be footnote in my memory, and I wll pass by it and think of the memories inside those walls, just as I do to the house in Norfolk, the only difference it is only a few minutes away from my new home and not 700., so I can ride by anytime I want.

 

Maybe by then my neighbor John will speak to me.

 

Our home has always been a quiet place, even when my son was growing up.  Being a only child he was very mature for his age, and the noise and mayhem of other kids wore him down rather quickly.  All those years of just the 3 of us here cemented us in a unique bond.  We ate supper almost every night in the breakfast nook, no tv, and long before the days of text messaging, that if had been available would have been banned anyway.  The table in the nook came from my mother's cafe back in 1977, and well, we just never got around to replacing it.  We are leaving it for the new owners.  You don't sit around that table, its square, so you sit "at it."  The only time we ate in the dining room was Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve, outside of that it was the nook.  So I said.

 

"Hey lets eat in the dining room tonight"

 

"Its full of boxes and the table loaded with junk"

 

"well it is our last night here, we need to do it right"

 

"not been to the store, saw no need of buying food to pack, is leftover spahgetti ok?"

 

"that'll be fine"

 

I put a dimmer on the dining room light first few weeks we lived here.  That device is still working backed by the fact I used it tonight to bring the lights down low for supper.  We have a cat named Lil Bit, a stray momma cat, with a litter and starving showed up on a patio for some help.  We took them in and found homes for them, but kept the one I called "Lil Bit"  He's been here ever since.  He's confused about what is going on, his home is upside down.  He sat in the window while we ate.

 

In the soft light of a dining room full of boxes, tape, and bubble wrap we ate our last meal in the house we basically grew up in.  It was too quiet.

 

She looked to me, "why are you so quiet?"

 

"I just am, a few months ago I never thought it would be so hard to leave here, besides having a baby, this is the biggest thing we've ever done"

 

"you remember our first Christmas Eve meal here?" She asked.

 

"I do; mostly"

 

"It was just the 2 of us, because we declined going anywhere, preferring to spend our fist Christmas together just us."

 

"Yeah and we did"

 

"So we gonna do that in the new house this Christmas?"

 

"prolly not, we have a son, he's gonna be home silly"

 

We left it at that.   When supper was over clean up was easy.  All but a few glasses and plates are packed.

 

I grow sleepy as I type this.  In the morning it is back to the packing, but the respite was welcomed tonight.  

 

Message 1 of 6
5 REPLIES 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Finish line draws near

You are such a great writer I feel like I was there in the dining room with room. I always get nostalgic when I move.

 

Thank you for sharing your last night in the house on Primrose with us. 

Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Finish line draws near

Sooo beautiful!  Brings back many memories for me to!  We've been in our new home for 3 yrs.  I do think of our old home but start looking for some more decoraitons for our new home & new beginning.  And yes, I felt I was there too. Smiley WinkHeart  May you and your have many, many more wonderful, happy, healthy, properous years in your new home.  

Message 3 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Finish line draws near

Every damn post i read i hear my grandpas voice. Almost the same scenario, they bought a house early, lived in it til it was beyond his ability to keep up (built in 1885) old electric, plumbing and everything else. The stories sound so familiar and the voice of your writing. Happy, but reflective. They moved and it was an eerily similar tone at the time. They bought new construction with all the upgrades. And once they were in they realized its the people that make the memories not the place. 

Thanks for bringing him back to me Bama. I miss him dearly. May you both be happy in you wonderful new home.

I may have to drop by for a chat when I go down to SC to see grandma this fall. Smiley Happy

Message 4 of 6
frugalQ
Valued Contributor

Re: Finish line draws near

So, we have a title for the book...."The Little House on Primrose".

 

thank you for sharing your experience with us...I, too, feel like I was eating dinner with you, your wife, and Lil Bit!!!

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Message 5 of 6
StartingOver10
Moderator Emerita

Re: Finish line draws near


@frugalQ wrote:

So, we have a title for the book...."The Little House on Primrose".

 

thank you for sharing your experience with us...I, too, feel like I was eating dinner with you, your wife, and Lil Bit!!!


Me too...I was looking for a icon somewhere that shows happy tears....{{{{{hugs to bamaguy and his wife}}}}}

Message 6 of 6
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