Taking Some Advice

Uncle Brent suggested in one if his comments that I write about some of my memories living in Great Grandpa's House. I have to tell you that after reading his recent blog about my Great Grandparents I have been thinking alot about those years. He posted a picture of the inside of the house, simply looking down the short hallway from the kitchen to the living room and when I saw that picture, tears welled in my eyes. I just had not seen that view for so many years, then it was like I was back there again. I remembered a story I wrote when I was in high school about the house so I went on the hunt and found it in my book of remembrance (thanks mom).
I wrote this when I was a JR in high school in Mr. Bonzo's class.

Grandpa Grapes old house (called Grapes because there are grape vines growing all over the front of it) used to be the playhouse for us, my sister and a few of our friends, and me when we would go visit Grandma and Grandpa in the small Mormon town of New Harmony. The "neatest" thing we thought, was to go cook in the old two-story wood house.
Grandpa Grape, my great grandpa, died when I was quite small, right there in the worn down house which put a little fairy-tale scare into all of us when going over there to do our cooking with the berries and different colored leaves we found in the back yard. It was against the will of any of us to go upstairs in the house. We didn't know what was up there and really didn't care to find out. Our curious little minds stuck on to finding out about things in the master bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, (very seldom), and the living room. There was, however, one more room on the main floor but that was the room that grandpa grape died in so it was off limits to us for fear of what so called "spirits" we might find flying around there. Needless to say, the door to that room was always closed. After all, at the age of 6 or 7, what can be expected of a small, fearful but curious mind.
Time passed, and from visit to visit to New Harmony from my present home in Salt Lake City, I grew older. By the time I had just graduated from the 5th grade, my Dad's longing urge to move back to Southern Utah, came to an end. He had found a job for a trucking company in St. George. Until we could get a house built there, we were to live in Grandpa Grape's old house. This way, Dad could commute back and forth until the house was completed.
In between buying and selling of lots in the vicinity of St. George, time flew by us fast and our "dream house" still was not in the process. Our "few months stay" turned into a few years before we knew it. I then began to find myself getting used to this dirty town full of small crawling creatures and weeds. After all, I had outgrown the stage where I experienced such great joy in going next door to Grandma's to bake cookies. I had also learned to get used to the fact that there were no "spirits" flying around in my bedroom. But, along with everyone else in the family, I wanted a new house. My own carpeted room that was warm and cozy sure sounded good.
I also made alot of new friends, other that the ones I used to make my potions out of dried leaves and berries with. Friends were a great necessity to have in a small town, without them, you'd go crazy. To keep us entertained at night, kids my age, and some older would go down to the small brick church house and play "steal the flag", or just talk and laugh.
Another year passed, and this time my dad found himself working at still another trucking company, this time in Cedar City. I was reaching that wonderful age when I wanted to go to Cedar on the weekend. New Harmony was just too boring. Since I didn't have my drivers license yet, I spent alot of time calling around town for rides into Cedar.
My "new" room was now upstairs. It was then that I found out it wasn't as bad as those little 6 year olds thought it would be. But it also wasn't as good as my previously described room sounded either.
After 4 1/2 years of living in the grape-vine-covered house, I was starting to get some real ripped-apart feelings about my dad for ever taking us away form our completely finished, carpeted, orange brick home in Salt Lake. I think he was feeling the same feelings about himself also. We were sick of spending the cold winters in the stove-heated house, that only heated the immediate area around it.
Finally it happened. Mom and Dad came home with great news. They had found a house they liked in Cedar. I think the rest of the family all thought the same thing. We had heard this before, because on and off they family had been looking at houses and just never found the right one. But it was true. The house was in Cedar Knolls and the whole family liked it, all 7 of us. None of us could believe it. The house was in the process of being built, so after we decided it was really what we wanted, the whole family pitched in to help finish it up. Kim, my sister, Mom and I had a fantastic time decorating it. It was better that Christmas. By March, 1984, it was finally ready to move into. And that's just what we did. Kim and I were so excited to have a warm room that we spent the first few nights there alone, without the rest of the family. In those few days, I unknowingly became sick for that cold, hollow place called "home". I would lie in my warm waterbed at night and think about that dark empty attic that used to be my room.
I never did see Grandpa Grape's house again until everything was moved out and gone. Then one day I went to Harmony with Mom to clean up the house. I walked up the stairs slowly saying to my Mom, "I have to take one last look at my room." As I turned and looked in the well-lighted room, from the hugh window on the south side, I saw nothing but a bed, the one that was already there and would stay there. I sat down on the mattress, thinking then crying. Never in my life did I think I would miss this old mansion.
Down the stairs I walked with tears streaming down my face. Mom came and hugged me, she softly said, "I know, I didn't think I would miss it either." Still today, when I'm visiting New Harmony, I slow down when I drive by Grandpa Grapes house. It still looks the same from the outside but I haven't been on the inside since.

**I will share some more memories at another time. There are quite a number that come to mind, but at the moment, my fingers can't type anymore.....