Cutting Edge

I am visiting my parents house as I write this- which always makes me more than a tad introspective.

It is nearly thirty years to the day that we moved in this house. My thirteenth birthday was approaching. We rented a U-Haul and with the help of some friends we moved from our red brick corner rental across town to another corner lot on what would become a much busier street. 

We were dripping with sweat and I am certain we chose the hottest day in August to move. I remember walking next door introducing ourselves to our retired neighbors. By the looks on Mr. G's face they didn't get many visitors. I asked to borrow their phone and called Dommino's to order a pizza to feed the moving masses. A few years later I would have to call the ambulance for Mrs. G. after a bad fall. I would bawl my eyes out as they loaded her up in an ambulance and drove away.

My parents had given each of us a room decorating allowance and I couldn't wait to start creating my oasis. They gave us one hundred dollars which seemed like a fortune to me in 1983. For some years blue had been my favorite color but I was growing up and blue seemed babyish. I selected a fabulous sea foam green paint for an accent wall. I paired it with the most amazing (and generic) sea foam and peach comforter from JcPenneys. It was a HUGE deal. I'd never had a comforter before. I wanted to get the most bang for my buck so I didn't order matching sheets, figuring no one would ever see them.

My most prized possession was this:

This is a PHONE. It's how we talked before cell phones and texting.

I knew I had truly made it when I had my VERY OWN PHONE. In my very own designer bedroom. 

It didn't matter that I only had one friend. Or that we never really talked on the phone.

Taking a page right out of Seventeen magazine, I covered the majority of one wall with dark cork board squares and plastered it with benetton and Swatch ads. I added some of my favorite exotic postcards- New York City skylines, Ontario and Kentucky horse farms. A rainbow of push pins held everything in place.

 

I felt very cutting edge when I angled a shelf in the corner to house my stereo, cassette tapes and a handful of record albums. My monkey stuffed animal collection was precisely arranged around the speakers to 'soften" things up. 

What was your room like when you were a teenager?