52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Bedroom

Week 19. Bedroom. Describe your childhood bedroom. What furniture did it contain? Were there curtains, wallpaper or paint? Was it messy or clean? Did you share a room with your siblings?

I actually had four different bedrooms throughout the course of my childhood; one in Augusta, one in Jacksonville, and two in Swainsboro.  After my grand aunt, Alice, moved out of our home in Swainsboro, I moved into her room, and that was my bedroom throughout my teenage years until I left home at age 18.

For at least three of those four bedrooms, I had the same bedroom suite:

Chest of Drawers, Dresser, Nightstand plus a double Bed.

(All of these pictures were taken in later years, after I was grown and my parents gave me my childhood bedroom suite.)

Now it has been passed on to the next generation:

Grand niece, Brittany, February 2009

My bedroom also had a desk and one of those old, floor model stereos.  I wish I had a picture of THAT.  I spent many hours in front of that stereo, singing along with the radio and recording my favorite songs onto my cassette recorder.

The room had paneling on the walls and dark red shag carpet.  The closet was up a step with double doors.  I remember always keeping my room clean.    

This was the house in Swainsboro:

My bedroom window is on the front of the house, the second from the right.  You can barely see it in this photo.  I spent many hours staring out that window, dreaming of freedom.  Back then people didn't use mini blinds like they do now; there were just curtains on the window.  Since there was no air conditioning, the curtains billowed in the breeze from the open window.  I can remember always being sure to close them at night so that no one passing by on the busy highway could see in.

As most teenagers, I spent many hours in my bedroom, period.  It was my haven.  I wasn't always able to hide there, but I certainly tried.  That house could be a scary place, but I did love my room and it was, by far, my favorite room in the house.  

A lot of the memories of my bedroom include my niece and nephew, Missi and Harry Jr.  We played, laughed, listened to music, scared each other in that room... you name it.  It makes me smile to remember.  I was raised as an only child (my siblings were grown and gone by the time I came along) so I didn't have to share my room... except for six weeks during the summer when the kids were visiting and Missi stayed in my room with me.  Probably my favorite memory in that room with Missi was one summer night... we were leaving on vacation the next morning.  So us kids were excited... and wired.  Everyone was in bed.  It was dark.  When suddenly Missi jumped on top of me - full body - and was saying "He's in here!  Harry's in here!  I hear the carpet moving!!"  LOL Sure enough, about the time she finished frantically whispering, a flashlight came on in my eyes, and Harry was standing over me, trying to show me his new watch!  He did that a couple of times that night.  I was always tickled at how Missi could "hear" the carpet moving!

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your memories on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.