Little Maura4u (3rd from left) with Neighborhood Friends
(The following are excerpts from a chapter in my upcoming book.)
Ever think about the house you grew up in? That very first house whose character, walls and environment provided your idea of what the world was all about when you were just a tot? And did you ever dream about the kind of house you’d like to inhabit – given the opportunity to design one yourself?
* * * * * *
It’s no secret that I was always a dreamer. I frequently drifted away to enjoy thoughts of my own. To this day, I still regard the common world as a necessary intrusion into my superior one. So while I physically grew up in the frame of one house with its attendant outdoor environment, my inner imagination was secretly aspiring to another world – with a unique dwelling of my very own choosing. I’ll begin with the familiar material one and then take you with me into the next.
* * * * *
My first house wasn’t big. It wasn’t splashy. It wasn’t located in a chic city or a suburb like Greenwich or Scarsdale. Our home was a stone’s throw from Manhattan on the New Jersey side, about twenty minutes west of the Lincoln Tunnel in a township of a single square mile. It was comprised of Italians, Irish and Poles and almost everyone in town was related – or at least believed they were.
* * * * *
A quick turn off our town’s main street revealed a world within a world, a departure from the norm, and a harbinger of America’s modern age. One’s arrival on this street prompted an arresting view of sparkling ranch and split-level homes, with brightly painted siding and impressive red brick. This was the new move-up community within our mostly blue collar, immigrant town; the pivotal spot where Eisenhower’s World War II mentalities were rapidly being replaced by America’s rising Kennedy-era aspirations.
* * * * *
Our house held one of only three places boasting front-row seating to the neighborhood’s center court – the base of the neighborhood known as The Circle – where everybody gathered to play. But aside from its center court location, our first house held plenty more for the little girl named Maura who dwelled within its frame. Maura’s just four years old, but she’s certainly up to the task of giving you the tour herself.
* * * * *
“Hi, do you want to come inside my house? Hold my hand. I’ll show you everything in here. Did you know our house has five floors? Let’s start way down in our basement. It’s called a sub-cellar because we have two. We just got big squares put down on our floor. It used to be plain, but now it looks like a giant checkerboard.
* * * * * *
Did you ever hear of somebody named Dick Clark? Mom knows who he is. He’s on a TV show called American Bandstand and she watched him in our den when she was doing her ironing. Dick Clark invites people to sing songs on TV and then big kids talk into his microphone and tell him what they think about the music. I just love to watch the big kids dance. I hope I can dance on this show when I grow up.
* * * * *
“See these two rooms? They look like a great big letter “L”. They’re called the Living Room and the Dining Room. You supposed to live in one room and eat in the other. The adults like to get dressed up and eat in the Dining Room. They make fancy drinks in the blender with lemons and limes but I’m not allowed to have any. I did taste a sip once and it was sweet and sour. I think the drinks are called sweet and sours, too. After dinner, mommy and my uncle sit together and play the piano and everyone sings songs from a big book. Daddy is a very good singer and so is his younger sister. I’m supposed to be asleep, but I like to watch them from the upstairs hallway. I know the M song and I can sing it, too. ‘M-I-S, S-I-S, S-I-P-P-I’.
* * * * *
“See the big window that looks out front? It’s called a Picture Window and I like it a lot. I want to sit on the ledge and watch what’s outside but Mommy said to get off or I would hurt the curtains. We have new Living Room furniture. I don’t know if I like it very much. The color is not white and it’s not like other people’s couches. Ours is swirly. They call it French something and I can’t remember the other word. What is French?
* * * * *
“I have a piano teacher named Mrs. Canales. She comes to give me piano lessons in the Living Room. She’s a nice lady but I can’t understand what she says. Mrs. Canales just came from someplace called Cuba. She has to call Mommy into the Living Room when there’s no picture in the piano book. Once, she was running around the Living Room and she was making noises like a train. Then Mommy came in from the kitchen she said, “Oh, Mrs. Canales, you mean to say a running note.” I still don’t understand how a note can run away.
* * * * *
“My favorite TV show is the Mickey Mouse Club. I like the Mouseketeers and I hope I can be a Mousketeer one day, too. I really like to sing and I want to go with them on their adventures with Spin and Marty. I can’t wait for the show to come on after dinner but when the Mouseketeers start to sing, “M-I-C . . K-E-Y . . “ and the big man says, “Why? Because we like you!” I know the show is almost over. As soon as they finish singing, the TV is going to turn off and Mommy is going to sing, “January, February, March!” on the piano. That means it’s time to march off to bed. I don’t like this song and I don’t like this part of the day. So, let’s climb these next couple of steps really SLOOOWLY. . . .
* * * * * *
Well, it’s been many years since Mary Poppins premiered on the silver screen in 1967. And I’ve had plenty of opportunities to fly since then – mostly in airplanes, but a couple of times via parasailing – both here and around the globe. Yet surprisingly, I’m still longing for that superior, ethereal place to call home. Having seen so much and having lived in so many dwellings over the years, I’m still inclined to intone with Judy Garland’s character in that famous line from the Wizard of Oz. There’s no place like home.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It wasn’t until I completed this chapter on the Home of MY Dreams that I realized it was not just for me . . but for you, the reader, as well. You can read this chapter it in its entirety when Maura4u is finished narrating the rest of her tales into print:) In the meantime, hope this inspires you in your own life – and in your home. – Maura4u
Tags: America's Camelot, Dick Clark American Bandstand, First House & House of Your Dreams, Improving Your Life One Thought at a Time, Kennedys in the White House, maura4u, Nostalgia from the early 1960s, Original Mickey Mouse Club, Suburban neighborhoods in the early '60s, Thoughts for the Heart
