Forgotten Memories

As I reviewed my mothers photo albums over Memorial Day weekend I stumbled across several photos of an object I have absolutely no memory of. According to the photographic evidence, which I cannot dispute, we had a clubhouse in our backyard from 1965 until we moved in 1970.

Now I was ten years old in 1970 and I should have some tidbit of memory left from that year. Obviously though the brain cells where evidence of this clubhouse were stored have been damaged over the years. Maybe I should have a heat sink installed inside my brain to keep it from over heating.

Apparently sometime in 1965 I made a big ruckus wanting to know why we did not have a clubhouse at the time. My sister was only two and my brother one so the request had to have come from me yet I do not remember it.

At the time my father worked for a company in Burbank called Zero Manufacturing. They were a company that made various types of machines for factories around the world. One day some large piece of equipment was delivered to the plant inside a large wooden box. My dad took one look at it and decided it would be perfect for building a clubhouse.

He brought it home and along with my mother went to work. They cut a doorway and four holes for windows into the box. My father took some wood and made door for it complete with hinges and a doorknob. From the photographs it appears that they used actual glass for the windowpanes but my mother cannot remember for sure. My father put a roof on it complete with shingles. My mother than painted the outside white with blue trim. She even hung little curtains in the windows.

According to mom this was our absolute favorite toy. We played in it every day for the next five years. When my mom and step-dad sold the house in 1970 we begged them to take the clubhouse with us but they refused. So we parted ways after five years of fun.

I wish I could conjure up some kind of memory concerning this clubhouse but I cannot. It is almost like I accidentally when it comes to that one part of my life in the late 60's.