Day 88: Air Hockey

Image of 1970s wood panelingAbout 10 hours ago 36 hours ago I became a happy home owner, and I realized something pretty remarkable once I walked in La casa di bava today. I bought my childhood home. It’s an 80 year old house with many layers of character, and some true oddities, and I trip out looking at such details as the phone holder built into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Everywhere there are signs of its original character and the layers of time and people dusted over the house ensure it is haunted with the past. My family is just the most recent group of haunters, and we will be sure to leave our phantasmagoric mark. The last day or so I have found myself particularly drawn to the basement when touring the house with others. It’s all wood paneling and, as Cogdog suggested on Twiiter, I really do feel like I found my house though a 1972 Sears catalog when I go down to the cellar. It is a wood paneled 70s extravaganza and this series has in many ways been leading m up to this moment, which of course will culminate on Xmas day, because the toys are as much a means to recapture the moment of my own childhood home, family members, and of course my mother, as it is a fun way to waste time. My childhood toys will be forever conjoined, and inseparable from, my memories of my childhood home at 885 May Place, including the wood paneled basement. And now that I have bought my childhood home, it’s time to furnish it with the toys and memories of my past:

air_hockey

air_hockey_desc

The Air Hockey table we got was unique because it was a shared present for seven kids. It was one of the rare communal Christmas gifts we ever got, and in many ways was one of the most memorable because of this.  It was already setup in our basement on Xmas day, and while we usually opened the gifts in the den, we all went down to the wood paneled basement together to see it as a family. We played at it for hours at a time over a series of years, with varying teams and tournaments. It was an integral part of our wood paneled basement, and nothing but good fun. I can almost hear the distinct sound of the plastic buck on the mallet as I write this. Beautiful!

And now it’s high time I catch up on four days of missed toys, all play and no work makes Jack a dull boy. Expect a flurry of toy posts soon 🙂

Image credit: Wishbook’s “1984.xx.xx Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog P125”

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9 Responses to Day 88: Air Hockey

  1. Andrea_R says:

    “I bought my childhood home. ”

    This made me tear up. You are a lucky, lucky man. 🙂

    And that is some serious paneling, my friend.

  2. Reverend says:

    @andrea_r,

    Me too, the realization has hit pretty hard, and like most nostalgia, it is as amazing as it is deeply rooted in generative loss. But the wood panels are keeping me honest, no on takes them down. NOBODY!

  3. We recently acquired a 9-in-1 game table – it includes air hockey, and fooseball (and a bunch of other boring crap – all I cared about was the air hockey and fooseball 🙂

    The Boy™ loves it. Seriously.

    Between that and the old pinball machine, I think he’d be pretty happy without any of this newfangled gaming console garbage. There’s no school like the old school.

  4. Scott Leslie says:

    Rev, that last line about “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is seriously freaking me out; you do NOT have a Room 237 upstairs, that is your imagination pouring you a drink in that bar, and Catman Scruthers does NOT work in your basement. Ok?

  5. Luke says:

    This is funny, as the house we bought a few years ago also reminds me of my childhood home… same enclosed front porch, same small bedrooms, same construction era and design quirks, same solid foundation.

    I appreciate the picture you paint of a house as a vessel for the memories of its inhabitants. This is part of the reason we bought an old house (1917) in an old neighborhood: the character that is imbued by time, use, misuse. It pissed me off that when we remodeled our bathroom, I had to special order a tub because only a non-standard one would fit because our bizarre roof comes down above the shower. And the layers of wallpaper the previous inhabitants pasted up was astoundingly ugly and a tremendous pain in the ass to take down. But in doing so, we’ve now begun to make our marks on the house, etching our character into its history.

    The existential satisfaction of making such nostalgia, the rich and textured notion of what makes a house a “home,” is often lost in debates over renting v. buying. In many ways, we’d have been better off continuing to rent and not having bought our house 3 years ago, when it seemed as though my wife would be at her nearby job for years to come. She no longer is at that job, and we’re locked for a while into a house who’s systems are old and need gradual upgrading (though we did get a good price on the place). Had we not bought, we might be freer now, and we’d have more money in the bank to chase opportunity.

    But, at the same time, we wouldn’t have a home, and all of the feelings that your post evoke. Complicated stuff to work through, but it’s necessary and, I find, ultimately satisfying to allow a healthy amount of nostalgia to inform your perspective on such things.

  6. It’s great, grande fratello!
    All mimsy are the borogoves, and the bava outgrabe.
    Happy house!!

  7. Hockey Picks says:

    The existential satisfaction of making such nostalgia, the rich and textured notion of what makes a house a “home,” is often lost in debates over renting v. buying. In many ways, we’d have been better off continuing to rent and not having bought our house 3 years ago, when it seemed as though my wife would be at her nearby job for years to come. She no longer is at that job, and we’re locked for a while into a house who’s systems are old and need gradual upgrading (though we did get a good price on the place). Had we not bought, we might be freer now, and we’d have more money in the bank to chase opportunity.
    “I bought my childhood home. ”

    This made me tear up. You are a lucky, lucky man.

    And that is some serious paneling, my friend.

  8. Well said, Mr. Picks. That’s a really fortunate name – I’d bet people would pay good money for a name like Hockey Picks. Mr. Hockey Picks. I’d guess your middle names are Douchenozzle Spamroach. Hockey Douchenozzle Spamroach Picks.

  9. Reverend says:

    @D’Arcy,
    I’m taking my measurements for an air hockey table tomorrow. I wanna hear that sound again, regularly.

    @Scott,
    There ain’t nothing in room 237, so stay out. STAY OUT!

    @Antonio,
    You’ll have to stay next time you are in Virginia. We’ll have ourselves a barbq!

    @Luke,
    When you buy your house is when you start something, and it’s as much symbolic as it is pragmatic. The pragmatism of it is boring, and logic of US capital makes it impossible not to own, you choke yourself out otherwise, but the most fun is trying to make sense of our cultural past in some local way. So, immediacy to how our moment shapes us. And, of course, a few ghosts, laughs, and a kitchen table to huddle around—kids running in and out and we just keep getting older.

    It’s a moment.

    @Hockeypicks,
    I’m keeping this one to give D’Arcy’s comment some context 🙂

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