Memories ~
From Falls Church to Kilmarnock
© 2007 Abilini's Computer Services
No Snacking (1965 – 1972)
Mom’s # 1 rule: Dinner is at 6 pm; there will be No Snacking of any
kind, after 4 pm….
The house in Falls Hill was a large, 3-story house. It was big enough for seven
children and two adults and several animals. This story primarily relates to
the basement, the kitchen and the garage. Let’s start in the basement, and work
our way up.
The basement consisted of two parts: The first part was 2/3 of the first floor -
the finished family room. This is where the Christmas tree and all the gifts
would be located. It was also the main location where all the neighborhood kids
would gather before going outside to play. It had a sliding-glass door to the
backyard, a wood burning fireplace, the main house TV and several pieces of
furniture, for relaxing or for rough-housing. The other third of the basement
was an unfinished laundry room, separated from the family room by a standard
door with a hook and latch at the very top of the door. The laundry room
consisted of an old-style metal wardrobe cabinet that was placed under the
stairs, which led to the second floor from the family room side of the basement.
Next to the wardrobe was a huge stand-up freezer. In front of the freezer was a
shelf, large enough to place folded clothes, or frozen items, to be put into the
freezer. Next to the shelf were the washer and dryer and next to them was a
washbasin sink. In front of the washer/dryer and sink was the area where dad
kept several model train sets. The set that was always there was an 'O Gauge'
train set, which the kids were allowed to use. There was a small
block-and-tackle hanging from the ceiling; it was used to lower dad's train set,
from the ceiling down onto the kids train set. Dad's set was a fairly large 'HO
Gauge' set, complete with tunnels, mountains, small handcrafted people and
animals. The kids were not allowed to touch dad's trains, unless dad was there
to supervise. And since dad had the temper, No One Touched dad's set.
Behind the train sets was the back door that went into the backyard. This door
was located directly under the kitchen and the kitchen windows.
In the summer time: The freezer would be stocked with all kinds of frozen
goodies; Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Ho Ho’s, Ice Cream sandwiches, Fudge Cicles, you
name it, it was in there. The ritual: everyday at precisely 3:55 pm, mom would
go downstairs and go into the laundry room. She would go to the back door and
lock it; she would then come out to the laundry room / family room door and
count kids. If, the ‘kid count’ was right, she would then set the latch in the
hook on this door. Mom had excellent hearing; she could hear that latch being
unhooked from the kitchen, even with the blender running! My job was simple:
since I was the youngest and the smallest in the family (at that time); after
mom went into the laundry room, to lock the back door, I would sneak in and hide
between the wardrobe and the stairs. I would then listen for mom going up the
stairs; at which point, I was to count to 50 slowly. When I reached 50, I would
come out from behind the wardrobe and go to the back door. I would unlock it and
open the door. Meanwhile, the other kids would be, purposefully, seen by mom,
from the kitchen window, playing out back. My sisters would separate from the
other kids, run over to the side of the garage, sneak down between the holly
tree and the side of the house, towards the back door. The key here was to keep
your whole body as close to the wall of the house as possible, as not to be seen
by mom in the kitchen. They would then open the screen door, I don’t know how
they got away with that, and prop it fully open. My sisters would then come in
the door, that I had already unlocked and opened, and would raid the freezer.
Then all of us would again sneak out, with the goodies, keeping as close to the
wall as possible. The last sister out would lock the door and pull it shut, then
release and quietly close the screen door (couldn’t let it slam, or the jig was
up). Then all the kids would gather, next to the garage, where the goodies would
be divided.
In the wintertime the garage was used as an extra freezer. The garage,
normally, consisted of dad’s car, a Rambler or Dodge Dart, a step ladder (which
was never kept by the garage door), the big ladder, dad’s tools, the snow shovel
and it also had a side door. It also had rafters. Up in the rafters were all of
the outside Christmas decorations; the lights, two wood cutouts of Rudolph the
Red-nose reindeer and one of Santa Claus. There were also the screens for the
windows, so they wouldn’t freeze and break from the winter snowstorms. All of
this stuff was put into the garage rafters, and also, usually around 3:45, there
would be at least 3 if not 4 kids, hiding quietly in those rafters. I wasn’t old
enough so I had another task to accomplish. My sisters, usually the twins and a
couple of the neighborhood kids, would climb into the rafters and hide and be
very, very quiet, for at least 20 minutes. Now, you are asking, “Why would they
do that?”
As I stated before, mom loved to cook! Cookies, brownies, fudge, assorted
holiday candies and holiday cookies, would all be stored in the garage in cookie
tins during the winter months. Again, mom’s winter ritual; at 3:55 pm, she
would go out into the garage with a flashlight, and she would shine the light up
into the rafters, then when satisfied, she would lock the garage’s side door,
then go back into the kitchen and lock the kitchen door. My job again was
simple, but this time I was in the house, usually in the kitchen. At 4:05, by
the clock in the kitchen, I would ‘be helping mom’ and knock something off the
counter. It didn’t matter what it was, as long as it made a mess. Mom would
always yell, “Robbie get the hell out of here and go outside and play!” That was
my sisters’ clue to climb down out of the rafters (that they had been hiding in,
since 3:45’ish) and unlock the side door of the garage. I would then go outside
and all of us would raid the garage.
The garage wasn’t as much fun as the basement, but come 6 pm, and dinnertime
there wasn’t a single hungry kid, on our court or in our family; especially,
when mom was cooking liver!
Speaking of Liver: The kitchen had baseboard heat and the kitchen table was
centered to the kitchen windows. The table was fairly large, and consisted of
bench seats on both sides and standard kitchen chairs on both ends. The other
part of rule #1 was that you had to eat all of your dinner or you couldn’t leave
the table. Whatever the dinner consisted of, there was always something that
someone didn’t like. Whatever that food was, it ended up in the top portion of
the baseboard heating system.
Many years later, mom and Mary (the oldest sister), both would tell the story of
how every week when they cleaned the kitchen floor they would find stale, smelly
food crammed into the baseboard heating grilles.