Are you humming? Is the next line of the song in your head? “In my own little chair.” Yay! I’m so happy because this song returns to me whenever I turn to walk down my stairs. The song and the story are entwined in my mind. It’s a tale that begins back, way back, as tales often do. It meanders through the lives of those I have loved, as tales often do. And it lands right at the top of my stairs, where I can relive it every day. Stay with me!
Growing up in the sixties, my brother and I would look forward to the varied annual specials that would interrupt our regularly scheduled programming on TV. We eagerly anticipated the Christmas shows and what week it was on “The 4:30 Movie”. One show we never missed watching was Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The performance, the music, the dancing, this show had it all. And the songs were epic. “In my own little corner, in my own little chair…”
Growing up in the sixties and seventies also meant entertaining yourself because, well, moms didn’t entertain you. You had to go out and play. You had to disappear to the basement and, “Don’t get too loud!” You had to enjoy a stack of comics or a good book. I had an awesome bookcase in my room and it was loaded with books. Or…you spent time with Gram. My Gram and I used to bake and make fudge and we used to paint. Gram fancied herself an artist and I joined right in!
Flash forward to 2013. I am an adult and guess what! Cinderella is coming to Broadway. Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. My brother and I make plans to go because, well, it just brought back so many wonderful memories. When Cinderella (played to perfection by Laura Osnes) sits in her little chair and sings I am in heaven. I have tears in my eyes. And now, as of Fall, 2020, I have my own little corner and my own little chair. It sits at the top of my stairs and I see it, and smile, whenever I come out of my room. In my corner is a chair from my mom’s house, the book case loaded with many of the same books from my old room. Atop the bookcase is a hurricane lamp, also from mom’s house, and a painting that I created at my Gram’s knee as a little impressionable girl. I even bought a copy of the book that I painted the cover of, The World of Horses by Marguerite Henry.
In my own little corner in my own little chair, I can be what ever I want to be!
writintime 
I enjoyed reading about your happy memories and their connection to a song. Also, I smiled at the lines about growing up at a time when moms didn’t entertain you and you had to play outside or in the basement. I remember it well!
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My brother was so funny talking about how his grown daughter is shocked by our stories from when we were young! Such a different culture today.
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Everything about this is perfection. The memory of your brother. The chair from your mom’s house. The picture made at your Gram’s. I just love it all.
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Thanks! I had fun writing it.
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So much about this I love. Your cozy corner, your lamp (and my grandmother had one just like it), Margaret Henry’s World of Horses, and then Cinderella! Say no more! Ten minutes ago I saw her…..Why Would a Fellow Want a Girl Like Her?…. Well if nothing else, it’s clear we enjoyed many of the same things through childhood, but there is so much more here. I am in gratitude for you bringing to light so many things that are dear to you, and through that, I am reliving my enjoyment of them as well. Your writing is so easy and fluid, it just flows without a bump – I feel like we are in conversation. What a great read with topics I could spend hours just thinking about.
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Like minds and like hearts!
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