I've been thinking about beds lately. For one thing, our venerable water bed has developed a small but stubborn leak that we can't seem to patch completely, so we've been thinking about getting rid of it. I'm trying to remember how old it is, and can't quite remember when we got it. It was either when we moved into DreamPark (spring, 1985) or when we swapped the bedrooms around about 2 years later. Either way, it's an old waterbed, but it bothers me that I can't remember just HOW old.

Then there was the old twin bed in Amber's room that I finally replaced with an Ikea daybed this year. I know that I got it from the gal that lived downstairs from me in that shabby old corner duplex in Seward who was getting a larger bed to accommodate a live-in boyfriend. But what was I sleeping on before then? I have no idea. And I know that bed followed me through 3 or 4 more rented apartments before I bought my first house in 1977. But... exactly where DID I move to after that Seward apartment? I know I lived with Nancy on Raymond Ave in St. Paul for a short time, and in an apartment in Powderhorn, but in which order? And how exactly did I end up in that duplex on 30th Ave? (Or was it 31st?)  Did Cathy find that place and I moved in with her, or was it the other way round? And who was that woman that I drove to the east coast with in 1974 (?)  Annette something? She had a VW bug and a couple of kids (who thankfully did not accompany us on the road trip), but where did I meet her and when did we drift apart? I just don't remember.

It no longer surprises me how few details I actually remember from childhood, but I didn't expect such large swaths of my adult life to simply fade away like this. 

March 1951. Brevard, NC. This is the first home I can remember - a small post-war house in a quiet neighborhood at the edge of town. Living with my father and mother, who must have been pregnant with my sister at the time. We have a collie named Nami, and a couple of black cats named Othello and Omar. I don't remember much about the house, but I'm sure it has only one bathroom (the census form always asks about bathrooms, doesn't it?). The back yard features an apple tree with a trapeze and dark red clay in the shade of the tree that was wonderful for making mud pies. The front yard has morning glories and a big screened porch. Later in the summer I will have a pet butterfly that lives in the screen porch and comes to sit on my hand when I call it. Uh-huh, for real!  That might have been the next summer, though, or even the one after that. To tell the truth, I don't really remember 1951.

March 1961. Macedon, NY. Wow, a lot happens in this decade!  First we move to a suburb in Hamden, CT. Then to a wonderful old farmhouse in Springvale, ME. That's the best house ever, but it doesn't even show up on this census because we  move again to Penfield, New York (short stay in a rented house about which I remember nothing  except more apple trees in the backyard and a cemetery across the street). And then one more time, so by March, 1961 we are living in a magnificent old brick house in an old canal town. By this time I have 2 little brothers (aged 7 and almost 3), with a 3rd and final brother coming along in December. Not sure what pets we have at this point - probably a cat or two, maybe even a rabbit. The collies come later.

March, 1971. Boston, MA, crammed into a tiny apartment at the foot of Beacon Hill  with a couple of young women I barely know (answered a roommate ad). Working at a company called Cole-Hersee doing some kind of office work, saving up money for a trip to Alaska. There was one more family move in the preceding decade, to a run-down country estate in Fairfield  County, CT. But by 1971 I have left home for college in East Lansing, MI, graduated and have started my post-college wandering. Back home in Connecticut there are cats and chickens and ducks and recurring litters of collie puppies.

March, 1981. Minneapolis, MN - Toonerville. Another multi-dwelling decade, including the year in Anchorage, 3 months back with my parents in Connecticut, and the cross-country trip that landed me in Minneapolis when my van  broke down. Then I lived in at least 5 places in Minneapolis (plus a summer on  the Iron Range where I was technically homeless) before eventually buying my first house - a slightly rickety 1-1/2 story house on the unfashionable south side of the Seward neighborhood. In March, 1981, I am sharing it with Richard (not my husband yet) and baby Thorin (15 months). And two cats, Herbie and Belly, both inherited from roommates who have flown the coop and left their cats behind.

March, 1991. Minneapolis, MN - Dream Park. Now things slow down, census-wise. We made the move mid-decade to a much bigger house on the west side of town to accommodate our slightly larger family and Richard's endlessly growing book, comic and game collection. We had house mates for the first few years, but by 1991 it's just the nuclear family - me, Richard, Thorin (11) and Amber (9). That damn cat Herbie is still around, but ever since she infected my darling daughter with fleas, cats have lost their magic for me. We have a gerbil ranch, with more than a dozen breeding pairs. At the rate small rodents reproduce, the household census is difficult to calculate even from day to day.

March, 2001. Minneapolis, MN - Dream Park. Same cast of characters, but without the cat. Amber nominally still lives here, but is off at college in Oregon. I think there are still a few gerbils left, but we have separated the sexes and are letting nature take its course.

March, 2011. Minneapolis, MN - Dream Park.  Me, Richard and Thorin (now 31). The gerbils are long gone, but we do have a turtle we call Curly. Or just Turtle, since we only have the one. We still have only 1-1/2 bathrooms. That's what comes of living in old houses all your life - none of that 1:1 bathroom/bedroom ratio you see these days, even in apartments.