DCatherineWritersWeb

The old gabled house had sat on the three hundred twenty six acre dairy farm since the late-eighteen hundreds.    The ceilings of the large downstairs rooms, in the style of that period, of time were twelve-foot high.  Heating provided by the forced air central heat duct made warming the first floor difficult and the upstairs almost impossible.  Each of the upstairs bedroom floors had an open grate.  This arrangement allowed some heat from the downstairs to rise to the upstairs bedrooms.  I don’t recall ever being warm upstairs, unless I was in my four-poster bed covered with one of Grandma's down comforters.

     The advantage to this form of heat was when Mom prepared apple pies, squash jam and peach cobblers.  The heavenly scents wafted up through the registers making our mouths water.  Those sweet smells, especially before the holidays, often lulled us to sleep to dream of great feasts.

This was where I grew up, went to school, helped my dad on the farm and shared my childhood years with my two sisters, Annie, the older one by three and a half years and Susie, the younger one by three years. ....

     ...  In 1948, weather co-operated and our crops sold well, so Dad decided to drop the ceilings in the living and dining rooms from twelve feet to eight feet.  The new ceiling hid the open registers downstairs and a central duct going up through the closet to the chimney supplied the upstairs with some direct heat. 

     To our delight, the grates in the bedrooms, covered with throw rugs, left about three feet of space between the two floors.  This gap provided a perfect cave and it wasn't long before we created a new game called, “Bear in the Cave.” 

     My younger sister, Susie, being the smallest would climb into the gap while my older sister, Annie and I covered the register with a comforter. 

She and I became the hunters crawling on the floor, searching for the “bear in the cave.”  It was great fun and we usually wound up rolling around, wrestling and laughing.  We played the game throughout that fall and early winter, especially on those cold, snowy, upstate New York winter days....

 ....The whole week before was delightful.  Every night and often during our rest time we could smell those great holiday smells, cookies, pies, jams and jellies, snow balls, all being prepared for the event.  Finally, the night of the party came.

Neighbors and friends arrived......    For a few brief enchanting moments, we were the center of attention and then, off we went, up the stairs to our rooms.

 Too excited to sleep, the three of us soon crept into Annie's room.  There we lay, on her bedroom floor directly over the living room and the festivities.  With ears plastered to the register grate, we listened to the music and the hum of talking as the festivities continued. ... This entertainment soon gave way to boredom; we decided to play our favorite game 'bear in the cave'.  Annie and I talked Susie into being the bear and, to add to the fun, convinced her to get ‘bare’.  We told her,

“Bears don’t wear clothes.”

True to form and a little prompting from us, Susie got bare except for her undies.  Her four-year-old mind baulked at that prospect, besides it still wasn't very warm upstairs.  With us hushing her and imploring her to be as quiet as possible, she crawled into the space between the floors.  We covered the grate opening with a comforter.  Annie and I proceeded to creep around the room whispering,

“Where’s the bear?  Where’s the bear?”....No longer able to stand the suspense, we jumped on the comforter just as she attacked from the cave. 

     The floor of the cave, conversely the ceiling of the living room, gave way and our bear fell halfway through the ceiling.  Susie's bottom half dangled, like a chandelier, into the living room; the top half hung on desperately to the floor of the bedroom. 

Annie and I tried to haul her up exploding in glee.  The total abject look of fear on Susie's face simply propelled the two of us into even more hysterical laughter.   

Downstairs, there was total silence, then pandemonium. ....  Dad, chuckling himself, got a stool, grabbed hold of Susie's rear and convinced her to let go.  Dropping into his arms, he bundled her in a blanket and hugged her until her tears of hysteria quieted. . ..  The laughter downstairs was still in high gear when Mom and Dad brought Susie back upstairs.  We tried hard to cover our giggles as Dad put us to bed in another room and admonished us to 'go to sleep'.  I think Susie was disappointed we didn't 'get into trouble'.

 At last, worn out from laughter, talk and trying to reassure Susie that we really did love her, our eyes shut and we drifted off to sleep. ... Occasionally though not very often, the story comes alive but not in Susie's presence. .. The trauma the first time around was enough to last her a lifetime.

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