Hommel Mangas
On the evening before our childhood home was properly signed over to another, I said my goodbyes — or goodnights.
Full of memories, I walked through each room and bid it a thank-you and goodnight. Built in 1953, Frank and Betty bought 114 Rose Lane as their first and only home about a year after they were married in 1955. My oldest sister Leta, who was an “only-child” infant when she first moved into 114 with our parents, was quickly followed by a team of six more siblings.
One of Leta’s favorite home memories was when we were all tucked in bed and would call out “Goodnight Mary Ellen” from one bedroom, with a giggled response of “Goodnight John-Boy” and “Goodnight JimBob” mimicking The Waltons 1970s TV Show where at the end of each episode the family would say goodnight to one another before falling asleep. This call and response from each sibling from three bedrooms would continue nonstop and with muffled laughter until Dad would march down the hallway stating, “If I have to come down here one more time,” while instantaneously we would all pretend to be asleep and snoring.
I said goodbye and goodnight to the living room where on snowy wintery days a half-dozen little rubber snow-boots would be lined up near the door after walking home from Our Lady of Greenwood. The same living room where we celebrated Jesus’ birth around a Christmas tree surrounded by seven small piles of presents for each child.
I said goodbye to the bathroom where Mom bathed us in the bathtub three at a time as toddlers. The same bathtub rim, where we sat waiting our turn to pee after playing outside and waiting until the last minute and your sisters got there before you.
I even said goodbye to the linen closet, where Leta recalled, “When I was little and Mom started to fill the washing machine to do laundry, I would run to the hallway linen closet and jump into the dirty clothes basket and cover myself up. When Mom opened the closet door, I would jump up and yell, ‘Boo!’ — I got her every time!”
In this same linen closet, I always loved looking up to see Mom’s beautiful cobalt-blue Evening of Paris perfume bottle shelved high above our reach.
I said my goodbyes to the three back bedrooms — the smallest which turned into the grandkids’ and great-grandkids’ “toy-room,” full of children’s books, vintage Fisher Price people and garages and diecast Hot Wheel cars and trucks.
Youngest brother Chris recalled learning how to repair things so Mom and Dad wouldn’t know they broke them.
“One time when David and I were doing flips off the top of the bunk bed onto the twin bed on the other side of the room — we miscalculated a jump and put a pretty big hole into the drywall. The hole was maybe 15 inches wide by 12 inches tall — the width of a butt and center of the wall studs,” he said. “Someone’s ingenious idea was to temporarily put a poster over it until much older brother Kevin could properly repair it. The poster worked until Mom was reaching over the bed while replacing clean linens and put her hand through the poster. David said something like, ‘Oh, Mom look what you went and did — Dad’s not going to be very happy about that!’”
This same bedroom has the most beautiful original refinished oak floor as No. 6 sibling, David worked on it as an adult (maybe as penance for the wall incidence.)
It may seem kind of silly, but I went through each room and thanked God for my family and all the memories in each room — the kitchen, the family room and sunroom that held so many birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter celebrations. Sometimes we celebrated just because.
A home full of family, music, prayer, sports, guitar-, banjo-, piano-, and game-playing. A house full of learning, laughter and love.
May 114 Rose bless the new homeowner
Goodnight Home.
Janet Hommel Mangas grew up on the east side of Greenwood. The Center Grove area resident and her husband are the parents of three daughters. Send comments to [email protected].
