Memories and Reality

Yesterday Mr Spartan and I had the opportunity to visit a place we used to live. We lived aboard Cherry Point for three years and moved from there in 2006. (We've since moved 3 times - but that's another post.) Driving around the base there had been a lot of changes - some good, some not to my liking - but it is funny how skewed your memory can be.

It got me thinking about my favorite house ever. It is located in Zanesville, Ohio. My friend lived in the house until we were probably in 5th or 6th grade.

I adored this house. For starters, every time we took the Maple Avenue exit - you could see the house. That, in an 8 year-old-mind - is the tops. I would beg whatever parent was driving to honk at the family if they were outside.

The house was located on a cul-du-sac within and within walking distance of Tom's Ice Cream Bowl - a favorite Zanesville spot for over 50 years. If I spent the night - we could walk to Toms and get ice cream. There were no Ice Cream parlors anywhere in my neighborhood - except I guess you could get a coke at the gas station down the street.

The house itself was like none I had ever been in. It was part stone, had sloping roofs, and green shutters with little heart cutouts. It had three livable stories and a basement. We lived in a ranch style house - so to me - the thought of stairs were a dream come true. I guess the front of the house was actually sideways - and from the highway you were looking at the side of the house. But this made no difference - because on the side of the house was a little terrace accessible through the living room window. I had only seen a terrace like this in various books I had read and movies I had seen that took place in Paris. Oh, how glorious it would be to open the door and stand on a terrace with room only for me!

The front of the house - actually the side - had a front door and a grand foyer that led to a sweeping staircase. The thought of having to walk up all those steps to a bedroom -- I would pray a silent prayer upon entering "please ask me to spend the night, please ask me to spend the night!"

But the most spectacular thing about the front of the house - it had a huge deck/terrace on the 2nd level leading out from the master bedroom! Oh, this was high living! Just the thought of such glamour - and in little Zanesville! Surely this home was built for a movie star.

The main floor had the kitchen, dining room, grand foyer, some type of parlor and living room. Oh, the living room...not only did it have the terraced window - it had french doors. FRENCH DOORS! Doors within a room. High style, indeed!

After climbing the grande staircase (there was a landing in the middle of the stairs...to die for!) you would enter the floor of bedrooms. We had the master bedroom - previously mentioned with the deck. I believe there was also a fireplace - but if it wasn't a fireplace - it was a shelf . There was another bedroom - but I don't remember much about it. A rather large bathroom - with two doors. Two doors! The 2nd door led to the bedroom of my friend. No one I knew had a bathroom attached to their own bedroom! Oh, dream of not having to walk into the hall to use the bathroom. This girl had it made.

At the end of the hall - and or some reason - my mind remembers the hallway as circular - was a door leading to another set of steps. I hesitate to call this an attic - because it was two rather large rooms. One room to to the left had been a bedroom - and probably could still be used as one - but we used it as a play room/office/school room. How grand this house must be to have extra rooms for our use only! Across the hall was another room. In my mind, both rooms are huge - as big as ballrooms. This room held a portable clothing rack filled with dance costumes. A couple of the older daughters were talented dancers - and this is where the old costumes went. I loved to look at them - just to see the spangles and glitter. Such glamour. And it could be mine for the night.

The family moved to South Zanesville in mid elementary school for reasons I don't know. I loved their new home, too. I have not been in the house off Maple Avenue since probably 1975 - but I pass it every day when I'm in Zanesville. Perhaps because it sits within spitting distance of the Maple Avenue Exit off I-70! Maybe because you could walk to Tom's which even though the ice cream is still out of this world - I don't even like parking in that neighborhood.

It's still stone. It's still green and has the cute shutters. It's kind of now surrounded by large houses that have been converted into apartment units, but it is still single family. I have no idea if the family knows how much I loved that house. I would love to go through it again to see if it is as grand as I remember. But, I think I'll just be content with my memories of the glitz and spangles of the 3rd floor costume room and the convenience of thinking the ultimate convenience to an 8 year old girl was not having to go in the hallway to use the bathroom.