Childhood Bedroom

Time to get back to something a bit more fun, instead of focusing on what is happening in the world today.

So today's legacy post is about your childhood bedroom growing up. I'm sure it is a fond memory that you can easily take yourself back to by closing your eyes. I grew up in Huntington Beach til I was about 6 years old. While I don't remember much about my bedroom, I do remember that the beach was so close, we could walk to it or ride our bikes. My parents decide on moving closer inland to purchase a new home with a lot more space. This is the childhood bedroom I remember.

We lived on 3122 South Sycamore Street in Santa Ana, California. Funny how you can remember stuff like that, including my phone number as well. I'm sure you can too. We moved into this 4 bedroom house, and I had the only room in the front. It was a single story house in the middle of a suburban new neighborhood. It was one of the bigger rooms aside from the master bedroom, so the view I had at the time, allowed me to see into the front yard. Since our house was new the cypress trees my dad had planted didn't obstruct the view at the time. They later provided some shade and privacy, but they would also later block most of my view from the inside.
I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It would later also help me to mask my escape to hang out with friends and boyfriends and no one could see me leave.

My bed was a canopy bed with beautiful pink and white sheets. I had a large dresser and a regular sliding door closet where I could keep my clothes, books and of course all my Barbies and Breyer horses. I remember jumping on that bed and swinging around those posts on the bed until one day, one of them snapped off. Not something you want to explain to your parents especially to your dad. My younger brother Mike shared the room next to mine but his view was only the side of the house. His door was adjacent to the bathroom we both had to share.

My door had a small wall directly in front of it, which is where my closet began. It also allowed a young child to brace themself against the wall and the door and make a climb to the ceiling. It was easy going up but almost impossible trying to jump down without killing yourself in the process. This was before televisions were allowed in bedrooms, so my only form of entertainment was a small cassette player and would later evolve into a small boom box that would sit on top of my dresser. I don't recall having side tables, just a bed and dresser and a big oversize bean bag were the only pieces of furniture in my room. The bed was placed in the middle of the room with my dresser facing it. This gave me so area to play in with my Barbies or to sit in a bean bag and read a book.

I used to sleep with my windows open at night, before things like security proved to be an issue, and one of the things my mom told me, was how cold my room got when she had to come wake me up for school in the morning. In the Summer, I would add a fan to that window to bring the cooler temperatures in since our family didn't run the air conditioning in the Summer. I don't remember it being that hot because the beach was about 20 minutes away.

I loved that bedroom and had lots of stuffed animals on my bed. I guess most kids did growing up. For me it was a much simpler time and we had to use our imaginations to keep busy since cartoons were limited to two different times during the day, mornings and the afternoon, just after school. We didn't have video games, but we did have board games. Most of our fun was hanging out with our friends all day and into the night. Looking back now, my mom didn't know where I was half the time. I would turn up just after the street lights would come on, if I wasn't home already.

I'm curious, what did your childhood bedroom look like and what was the view out your window?