My mother took
this picture of me as we prepared to leave what we affectionately called “The
Mouse House”. Given that name due to a story too horrific to share, we lived there until my parents decided it was
time to move from our dainty little farmhouse into “town”. Every time I see this picture my mind turns to a fluffy pink chair I would lounge in, and the mushroom soup I was oddly obsessed with. I was uncomfortable wearing pants, as you can tell from the photograph, and throughout my childhood I continued
to have a great aversion for this one piece of clothing. I will admit this once got me in trouble,
when I had somehow locked my sisters and myself out of our
house in the middle of the winter, forcing them to tow me over to the
neighbours bare thighs and all. I don't want to admit how old I was when this happened.
Apart from some
humorous stories, this house also holds precious memories of learning. Here I
learned basic mathematics. If you have one mommy cat, and one daddy cat,
together they will equal more kittens than you can count. I learned some hairdressing,
as you can see from my bangs, and so did my mother, as she tried to fix my
mistakes. It was while living in this house that I learned to ride a horse, the
seasons of planting and harvesting, and that you will break your collarbone if
you try to jump from a kitchen table to the couch across the room in one
swift leap of faith.
Above all
though, it is in this house that I began to learn to read, my favourite pastime. When
my mother would bring out the warm towels from the dryer and ask my dad and I
to fold them, we would quickly jump into the pile and read Dr. Seuss books until the heat was gone. This house is far and distant in my memories, yet I hold onto it dearly. Despite being young, I remember packing up the car, holding our cat in my lap, and slowly pulling out of the driveway. When I left that warm and isolated home, I left it fondly, and with thoughts of the
elephant Horton, eggs and ham of the green variety, and the smell of the
prairies on my clothing.
