I am the oldest of four children. I was born in August 1960. My Irish Twin, David, was born a year later. David and I were incredibly curious and adventuresome. We shared a bedroom. In the bedroom were twin beds which could be stacked into bunk beds (and later in time, they were). There was also a chest of drawers and a playpen, which had served as a playpen/crib for me and for David. When Valerie was born in 1963, the playpen became her crib.
Shortly after Val was born there was one of our rare Alabama snow storms and it left about ten inches of snow on the ground. It must have been a weekend because my parents had slept in and David and I left our bedroom and checking out the living room window and seeing snow on the ground, we went out the front door in our jammies to play in the snow. That was where Mom and Dad found us when they got up. Val, still an infant was asleep in the playpen.
Later that day, Dad reversed the lock on our bedroom door and each night we were locked in so we could not escape out into the dangerous world until Mom and Dad were ready to watch us.
Locked in the room each night, we would wake up and find new and great adventures. One adventure I had with David was to figure out how to get to the top of the dresser. We figured out we could use the drawers as steps. Our plan had a fatal flaw however, and I can’t remember now what the initial logic of it was. We climbed in the bottom drawer, pulled out the next drawer, climbed into it, and for some reason, closed the drawer below. There were four drawers. So, four times we climbed to the next drawer and shut the drawer below behind us. We were so thrilled when we got to the top. We giggled and talked about how great it was and how small Valerie looked over in her playpen. After a while we calmed down and decided it was time to get down. We tried and tried but from our position on top of the dresser we could not pull the drawer out. We were stuck.
We contemplated several ideas. We decided it was too far to jump to the closest bed, and it was too far to jump to the floor. We looked over at Valerie. She was still pretty little at about eight months old and trapped inside the playpen, she couldn’t help. We had no choice, we had to call for help. After screaming for Mommy for about 20 minutes, she finally came in and rescued us.
Not long after that we decided Valerie would be honored to join us in our adventures. I have no idea how we got them or why they were in our bedroom, but David and I had somehow found a pair of pruning shears. We decided, in our three and two-year-old brains, that we needed to create an escape for Valerie from the playpen and help her get out into freedom. It took both of us to work the pruning shears, but we cut a decent size hole in the net wall of the playpen. Val didn’t seem quite capable of understanding that she was now free, so we climbed through the hole to aid in her escape. When David got in the whole bottom fell through. About that time, Mom and Dad came through the door. They were not quite as excited as we were about Valerie’s freedom.
A few weeks later, our regular baby sitter came to stay with us and shortly after Darryl came home from the hospital. Another new baby for us! Dad had been unable to fix the playpen well enough to put infant Darryl in it at that time. So, the new baby went into an emptied drawer from the dresser. That was really cool to the rest of us. Our new baby slept in a drawer.
Shortly after Val was born there was one of our rare Alabama snow storms and it left about ten inches of snow on the ground. It must have been a weekend because my parents had slept in and David and I left our bedroom and checking out the living room window and seeing snow on the ground, we went out the front door in our jammies to play in the snow. That was where Mom and Dad found us when they got up. Val, still an infant was asleep in the playpen.
Later that day, Dad reversed the lock on our bedroom door and each night we were locked in so we could not escape out into the dangerous world until Mom and Dad were ready to watch us.
Locked in the room each night, we would wake up and find new and great adventures. One adventure I had with David was to figure out how to get to the top of the dresser. We figured out we could use the drawers as steps. Our plan had a fatal flaw however, and I can’t remember now what the initial logic of it was. We climbed in the bottom drawer, pulled out the next drawer, climbed into it, and for some reason, closed the drawer below. There were four drawers. So, four times we climbed to the next drawer and shut the drawer below behind us. We were so thrilled when we got to the top. We giggled and talked about how great it was and how small Valerie looked over in her playpen. After a while we calmed down and decided it was time to get down. We tried and tried but from our position on top of the dresser we could not pull the drawer out. We were stuck.
We contemplated several ideas. We decided it was too far to jump to the closest bed, and it was too far to jump to the floor. We looked over at Valerie. She was still pretty little at about eight months old and trapped inside the playpen, she couldn’t help. We had no choice, we had to call for help. After screaming for Mommy for about 20 minutes, she finally came in and rescued us.
Not long after that we decided Valerie would be honored to join us in our adventures. I have no idea how we got them or why they were in our bedroom, but David and I had somehow found a pair of pruning shears. We decided, in our three and two-year-old brains, that we needed to create an escape for Valerie from the playpen and help her get out into freedom. It took both of us to work the pruning shears, but we cut a decent size hole in the net wall of the playpen. Val didn’t seem quite capable of understanding that she was now free, so we climbed through the hole to aid in her escape. When David got in the whole bottom fell through. About that time, Mom and Dad came through the door. They were not quite as excited as we were about Valerie’s freedom.
A few weeks later, our regular baby sitter came to stay with us and shortly after Darryl came home from the hospital. Another new baby for us! Dad had been unable to fix the playpen well enough to put infant Darryl in it at that time. So, the new baby went into an emptied drawer from the dresser. That was really cool to the rest of us. Our new baby slept in a drawer.
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