Immediately I began to think of my bedroom when I was growing up.  I loved our old house.  My parents bought the house before it was actually completed and they were able to make some requests for the floor plan and construction of it.  We had an extremely long kitchen and dining room with a wall of bookshelves at the end of it.  The dressers in the bedrooms were the length of one wall and they were built in because my mom didn’t want to have to pull them out to vacuum behind them.  Pretty smart, right?  In my room (well, I shared it first with my older sister and then with my younger sister) the actual drawers were in the middle and there were desk areas at each end.  It was perfect.  We each had our own space, no fighting, sort of. 

When I was about 16 our parents were having the house painted and they let us pick our own color.  I’m not sure if I actually let my sister have any input about it or not, after all she was only 11.  What do 11 year old’s know?  I didn’t realize at the time that I was an introvert, I just knew I was shy and only had a few close friends.  I didn’t have a big social life or go to a lot of high school functions.  There must have been something wild inside of me though because when it came time to pick the color of the room I said I wanted bright yellow for the walls and black shag carpet!  Fortunately for me, even though the painter said we would not like the room like that, my parents let me have what I wanted.  This is what it turned out like:

You can see the built in dresser and through the window there is a work shed that my father built.

Black and white bedspreads on the twin beds and that yellow bookcase came with me to my first apartment many years later.

I think one of my favorite parts of the room was this chandelier lamp that looked like flowers.

I loved this room.  I felt so good every time I was in it.  Free to be me? 

Wish I still had that cowboy hat

Laying across the bed singing my heart out to some song on the radio.

Also some pretty heart wrenching times in that room as I cried over not having a boyfriend or not getting asked to the prom.  That’s The And Space.

Nowadays, I know that I am definitely an introvert.  I don’t like crowds and would much prefer a small gathering to a huge party.  I rarely “let myself go” like that.  The only exception is our concerts.  It must be the music that moves me. 

I know there must be some of that “wild” still there somewhere though because I find myself drawn to things like this:

Safeway flower bunches

iTunes artwork

Crayon picture my daughter did

Flowers from our high school reunion

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I have to thank my parents for not listening to the painter and for letting me express myself in this way.  I think that’s so important and tried to be tolerant of my kid’s ways of self-expression.  I’m also glad that I have these pictures to help me remember!

Man, this color thing is bringing back some memories…guess that’s the point, right?  How about you?  Do certain colors trigger memories for you?  Remember your bedroom growing up?   

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