I'm in Here!

Things that were normally part of your daily routine, that were taken for granted, suddenly change as we get older. Not wanting to elaborate too much on this sensitive topic, I refer to the time you spend in the bathroom. For years it was a minute of your time spent eliminating, then suddenly it's now an occasional gift. Today as I casually visited the rest room with my coffee and book and I don't think I was in there more than 3 minutes, there was a scratch at the door and I instinctively yelled, "I'm in here!" That sent me reeling back in time when I was in a household of 5, with one single bathroom and you never got to spend time in there without someone knocking on the door exclaiming, "I need to get in there"! You reply back,"but I'm in here!"


As I opened the door, I was just reading anyway, there stood Macy with a toy in her mouth wanting to play. I asked her if she needed to get in there and she went running away to play with her toy alone. Just as well, as I was getting tired of playing, "I'm Gonna Get It" anyway.


The second expression of old was whenever we asked our mom where a certain toy was, her canned answer was always, "Did you look in the other room"? We never really knew which room was the other room and I don't think Mom did either. Our apartment consisted of living room, dining room and one bedroom and as I've mentioned, one single bathroom. Mom and Dad slept on an in-a-door-bed that came out from behind a large massive door, that I later learned was a Murphy bed. Playing behind the Murphy bed, while it was in the up position was a favorite pastime. My own personal Jungle Gym, if you will? Also a great place to hide when you were in trouble. If you compare that to the existence that children have now, it's mind boggling. Day care, soccer practice, after school activities, the gym and parks every few blocks. 


When I was old enough to go outside alone, a group of kids from the neighborhood played marbles in a patch of dirt near our our apartment building. It was known as the empty lot. Whatever happened to my marble collection, I was pretty good?