basements

I would like a basement.
I keep telling my husband that I would be so happy if I had a basement. Is that wrong?!
Well, when you live in Phx. AZ it is, cuz it just ain't gonna happen.

But do you know how wonderful my life would be with a basement?
We would be able to get both cars in our garage.
We would be able to cool off from these long, hot summers.
We would have a place to go when... you know... oh ya, in Phx. there are no weather conditions that require a basement. Ever!

But I have great memories growing up with a basement.

Each year around this time, it was moving day. I would move my playhouse from the old wooden corn crib summer home to the basement for the winter months. It was a big deal. I loved moving day... a time to redecorate and reorganize my playhouse.
We also spent many nights in the basement waiting out a tornado... while my Dad would be in the barn or upstairs watching the devastation unfold... later telling us the big oak tree was down... the calf barn roof was peeled off... or the neighbors barn was gone.
I also spent many hours playing ping pong with my brothers. We were a fiercely competitive family! So it got rather physical!
Then... well... then there were those nights... heck, EVERY night... that I was asked to go down to the basement and get a half dozen potatoes... Schwan's ice cream... canning jars of corn or green beans... maybe an onion.
My point? Well, BASEMENTS ARE SOOO SCAARRY AT NIGHT!!
I'd spend hours every day in the basement... but come night fall, all I could imagine was someone grabbing my ankles as I made my way down the open stairway. I would scream a closed-mouth kinda scream... as I ran down those basement stairs... grabbing whatever and tearing back up those stairs, three steps at a time! My heart would be racing as I set the item down on the kitchen counter, having survived yet another trip to the basement. You see... the basement was not a pretty site... very dark, damp and musty smelling... unlike the basement in my parents home. Their basement was THE place! My kids loved to play ping pong, pretend and drink pop! And ever since they can remember, my kids have slept in the old bunk beds in their basement. My Mom still puts the same Pound Puppy sheets on those bunks! It's about making memories...
Hey, just had a thought... the memories they have of those times in the basements were a big deal because WE didn't have one... it was new, exciting and different. So I'm OK with not having a basement, when I hear my kids telling the stories... reminiscing... sharing the memories.