Bedroom on Zimmerman

     The mention of the built-in bookshelf in my bedroom in yesterday's post got me to thinking about the Zimmerman house again. We moved in to the old farmhouse in 1965 and seemed to think that the place had been built in the early 1900s. My understanding, based on what I heard my parents talking about, was that Dad was going to re-do every room in the house over time.

     On the first floor there was a kitchen with an uninsulated pantry stuck off the side. There was a big master bedroom with a walk-in closet, a bathroom with a claw bathtub, no shower, a much smaller bedroom behind the kitchen, next to the bathroom. There was a living room with bookshelf dividers so the living room had the appearance of two rooms and one could be used as a dining room. Across the front of the house was an uninsulated but enclosed sun porch with 13 windows and steps down to a door, the front door, to the outside. There was a huge basement, and there was a second floor. On the second story there was nothing but an unfinished hardwood floor.

     When we moved in, the small bedroom became mine, my parents of course had the master bedroom, and my brothers slept in the uninsulated sun porch. The thought was that Dad's first project would be to finish the upstairs – putting in all new bedrooms, and with luck, Clark and Eric would only have to spend one winter sleeping in the cold sun porch.

     One story I do have to mention about the old bathroom – the lamps on either side of the sink had pull chains and the sink had separate faucets for the hot and cold. One day I walked in and put one hand on a faucet and one hand on the lamp chain, turned the faucet knob and pulled the light chain – I got an electric shock that jolted right through me – the water and electricity were not a good combination. Days later, I did the same thing again – grabbed the light chain at the same time as turning on the water – and the electric shock went right through me again. Even though it took two times for me to get the message not to turn on electricity and water simultaneously, it has stuck with me ever since – there are few such hazards in the bathrooms these days to cause electric shock, and yet I always seem to have one hand free when turning on anything with the other!

     Dad rented a machine that sanded the unfinished hardwood floor on the second story of our Zimmerman house. Then he did whatever else was needed to finish the floor – pine boards, absolutely gorgeous.
     After that Dad built and completed four bedrooms upstairs – one for each of us. Mine was in the middle with a dormer – windows out on the side of the house that had the row of hemlock trees – quite cozy. I had a walk-in closet that had a door at the end going to another, smaller closet lined in cedar! A cedar closet for the whole family's off-season clothes. Very nice.
     Between my closet door and the wall with the windows was a modest built-in bookshelf – something I took for granted at the time – but thinking about it yesterday I realized the bookshelf was not something Dad had to put in, I don't think it was structurally necessary – and yet he did – just one of his special touches!

     When the bedrooms were finished upstairs and I moved in to mine, my folks got a whole bedroom set for me – double bed, 2 nightstands, a dresser with mirror and a desk with a chair.
     I still have that bedroom set. The nightstands are on either side of the bed we have now. The desk is downstairs acting as a dresser in the guest room – its chair broke years ago and is gone. The dresser is in North Carolina with Sarah and John's kids. And the bed frame is in the garage waiting for either of my daughters to say she is ready for the whole set – the chances of them really wanting it are slim, but it would be a shame to get rid of any of the pieces when the bedroom set has so much history after all this time!

     There is an irony to having kept the bedroom set all this time – having gotten it in 1966 and being ready to move out into my first apartment in 1977, I wanted to leave the set with my Folks to they would not have to get something else for that space. And I wanted a brass bed for my apartment. You know, Bob Dylan was telling me to lay across that big brass bed. It was the only thing I knew I wanted for my entire apartment. But a bedroom set was the only thing I owned – Mom and Dad were telling me to take it – it was mine – and all the while they were keeping a poker face about my wanting to lay across a big brass bed ala Bob Dylan.

     So I moved to my apartment with nothing other than the bedroom set, determined to return it to Zimmerman once I got a brass bed. But you know, I had to get a couch – the retro couch as my daughters call it now – I still have it; and a carpet for the living room because back then it was the fashion to cover the beautiful hardwood floors; and kitchen supplies including a table and chairs; and after a while the practicality of appreciating that which I already had and spending money on what I actually needed took over.

     And in the ensuing years, there have been many beds and bookshelves and Bob Dylan cd's in my $5 record collection; they bring to mind old stories and make me realize I have not missed the things I have not had.

164 20150613 the Bedroom on Zimmerman