You know that movie or sitcom cliche where the adult goes back home for a visit and has to sleep in his or her childhood bedroom and it's not been changed? The teen idol posters on the walls, the Star Wars sheets on the bed? And then much hilarity ensues. Well this has always been amusing to me but not really identifiable as real. A few months before Brent and I got married my parents moved in to a new place and there weren't enough bedrooms for the amount of people living there. Since I was moving out in a few months I slept on the couch in the living room so I didn't even have a childhood bedroom to go back to if I had wanted to.
So today I was cleaning up C's room in prep for Corrie coming to visit next Friday (yay!) and as I dusted shelves and straightened books I thought, "This really has turned in to a time capsule." C doesn't live here any more, he visits when school is out of session. Home is his apartment in Burlington with his roommates. That place looks like a group of men in their early 20s live there. His study here is like that. Video games, computer desk, comfy chair. But his bedroom has really stopped changing since he graduated from high school.
The books on the shelves are his favorites from growing up so there are books there that he read and re-read from elementary school on through high school. There are pictures of his Benihana birthday celebrations from his middle school years. Pictures of both sets of grandparents. His first set of Mouse Ears from Disney. His trumpet and music. The rocking chair that has been his since before he was born. Now, I've noticed this before and written about it but it was a few years ago and more about how it's like he hasn't really left because his stuff is here. But now what is here is the stuff he's outgrown. It's like a giant memory box.
Brent and I have decided to stay here until C graduates and finds a job someplace then we will either move downtown or find a place closer to the coast or in the hills. Then we will pack all of his things up and send them to his new place and he will decide what he really wants to keep and what he doesn't. What bridges his past in to his future. But until that happens he can come home to sleep in the Shrine of C's Childhood. And I hope that when he does he smiles and feels pride at the awards and the honors that are framed and kept. And I hope he remembers the trip to Disney were he got that set of Mouse Ears. And the trips to Benihana when those photos were taken. And even sitting in that rocking chair silently crying when he heard about his grandfather's death.
And now when I see that old cliche played out in a movie I will smile a sad smile and know what the parents feel like every time they dust those old trophies and remember the time at Bullwinkle's when he and his buddy won enough tickets to buy that silly foam rocket launcher...
But for now, the room is clean, the sheets are freshly washed, everything is dusted and vacuumed and ready for Corrie's visit. Where the adult comes and sleeps in the childhood room and much hilarity ensues....
No comments:
Post a Comment