When I was a kid, we never had air conditioning in any of our houses. My mother moved a lot. She got some money in the eighties and got into "real estate". The houses changed, but the interiors did not - metaphorically and literally. While we lived in the houses year round, my memories of all of them live in the summer months. Like a sense memory, I can be transported right back there with the simplest most subtle sound, object, or textile.
The various houses we lived in throughout the Northeast over the years (with the exception of our apartment in NYC) were always cooled by fans, and open windows, that were protected by screens during the summer months. I remember those screens, some of them patched with another piece of screen glued over the hole -- a hole most likely made by me pressing my face up against it, sneaking a stolen cig and blowing the smoke out the window, or just looking into the darkness of those summer nights.
The toile floor length drapes hanging idly by, waiting for the slightest breeze to move them, their white rings clacking against one another lightly. Sometimes, I'd just lay in bed with the crisp sheets twisted around my upper leg, staring at the edge of my night stand, or the vacant twin bed opposite from me.
The sound of a car speeding down the road off in the distance. The sounds of a radio flowing in from somewhere, Tom Petty, Grand Funk, or Greg Allman, filling up my head with dreams that had no beginning, middle, or end. The quiet whirling of a fan constant, as my head swirled with feelings of longing, lost in some impossible fantasy as I waited for sleep to come.
The summer rooms were safe and calm. Quiet, like a chamber.
I don't even remember feeling uncomfortable or scared. The things I do remember about those rooms are comforting to me. There's no real story to tell, nothing ever happened in real time. But, the memories are emotional and are now apart of my DNA. I don't know - it was just something about those rooms that my mother created that screamed summer! Where I was free to be.
SUMMER ROOM PICKS:Â
Serena & Lily
A Room with a View - E.M. Forster
Hidden Valley Bed & Breakfast
Sister Parish Design
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Spotify | Playlist
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