Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The Laundry Chute

When I was born, we lived in an apartment on Linden Avenue in Arbutus, Maryland, but shortly after that we moved to a row home on Council Street, also in Arbutus.  (At that time, they were row homes, now they're called townhomes which I guess sounds more respectable, but either way, they were houses in a row!)  We moved again when I was about 4 1/2, so most of my memories of that house come from pictures, but there are a few things that stand out as true memories.  One was the laundry chute.  I remember being fascinated with it!  It was a three-story house, and you could drop things in the laundry chute from the top floor, and it ended up in the basement where the washer was.  To my young mind, there were few things more exciting than that!  One time I remember standing in the hallway and looking towards the bedroom at the front of the house.  The sunlight was pouring in and filtering through to the slightly darkened hallway.  I wanted so badly to find something to drop in there!  I can't remember if I did on that occasion, but I have a recollection of doing it at some point and racing down the stairs to watch it come out at the bottom.  Of course, I never made it, but I don't think it stopped me from trying.  The laundry chute... what a fun memory!

The other thing I truly remember is standing at the gate of the big field next to our house and wanting to follow my brother, Wayne.  He and my brother, Bentley, were much older than me (13 years, and 11 years respectively), and I idolized him.  I loved both of my brothers, but Wayne always paid special attention to me as a child.  Our house was at the end of the row and right next to the fields that were part of the junior high school.  They would walk to school and games and such, and I remember one time in particular wanting so badly to follow Wayne.  There was a big bar-type gate that was really just meant to keep cars out, but I knew I wasn't allowed to cross it.  I can see the grass and the sky and emptiness before me - no Wayne.  So I must have stood there until he was out of sight.  I clearly remember the longing.

There were other fun things about that house and neighborhood.  There was the strawberry man who walked the street calling out, "Strawbears!!" ( He never added the "ry" for some reason.)  And getting our picture taken on a pony, also from a man who walked the streets drumming up business.  Do you remember that stuff from your childhood?  Those kinds of things are long gone.  But the laundry chute and wanting to follow my brother are the memories that planted themselves in my young mind.  It's funny because most of my memories of that house are in black and white due to the photographs we have.  But I remember the yellow sunlight of the bedroom next to the laundry chute, and the green grass and blue sky as I watched my brother.  It's amazing what God has done for us.  He gave us colors that can provide so vivid a recollection that you can actually experience the feeling all over again.  His wonders never cease, and I find Him not only in my daily life in the present, but I see Him there in all my memories.

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