Looking Back (Waaaay Back)
Well, it’s going to come out some time. Might as well be now. Over Christmas, my grandma asked me if I had any inklings of my future interest in all things related to home and design when I was growing up. Honestly, it never crossed my mind. Looking back, however, the signs were everywhere. I was obsessed with my Dream Builders set. Does anybody remember these?!
Sure, the set included detailed instructions regarding the placement of all the pieces, but I was so much more interested in building houses of my own design, complete with intricate space planning, down to the location of the toilets. My parents discovered that temporarily revoking TV privileges was an ostensibly effective way to discipline me. However, each time they informed me that I couldn’t watch TV, I would immediately start creating houses with secret passages and a secret room with a TV that only the kids knew about and to which the kids could go to watch TV if ever they should be officially denied the privilege. And then I would proceed to show these to my parents, conspicuously pointing out the secret TV room so they knew that I was defying them on the inside. Kuddos to them for not bursting out laughing right in front of me. I vaguely remember that when I was 10 or 11, someone suggested that I could be an architect. Somehow, even at that time I had a suspicion that architecture had a lot to do with math, my arch nemesis. Needless to say, I didn’t give that suggestion any consideration. Chucked it like a hot potato.
Then there was the constant “fort” making. Sure, most of them consisted of branches that had been bent and tied together to make a screen, and the beds were made of heavy duty garbage bags that I had stretched between some of those branches like a hammock. However, there was one I was super proud of. At one point, I asked my parents if we could find a homeless family and invite them to come live in it. I was convinced that it could sleep at least four people: two adults and two children.
If you didn’t look this cheesy in the ‘80s, you weren’t doing it right.
With a play pen (baby jail) for a frame, corrugated metal for a roof and curtains for walls, how could it not be a solid choice for any family? Oh, right, and the bricks holding the roof in place. But, you know, it couldn’t just be utilitarian. I couldn’t just leave the edges of the corrugated metal exposed . . . a ruffle of unknown provenance, yes, that was the obvious solution. And we can’t have an overhanging roof without a patio, complete with welcome mat.
We aren’t sure if we are going to adopt any more, but if we do, I hope I’m able to recognize and encourage the quirks and interests that might reveal what each kid is made for.