We grew up in small town New England in a Cape Cod style home with dormers on the second level where the bedrooms for me and my brothers were located.
We had a basement that was accessible two ways. First was from the inside, the stairs were across from the kitchen. I remember my mother had shelves added the underside of the steps going up to our bedroom. That was her pantry. Down the stairs took you into the basement. While it had a cement floor, it still felt pretty damp.
It was semi-divided into four sections by the stairway. The top left was my father’s work bench and he even managed to set up a dark room at one time. The lower left was an more open area where the oil barrel for our furnace sat. There was a small window above it that was used for the hose when it was time to fill. Between those areas was a clothes line for winter and bad weather drying. The bottom right was our play area. We had an old braided rug in the middle, a tired sofa, along with some book shelves for games and a toy box for my brothers. The top right was open, I think we stored our bicycles in that area during the winter. I tried to make a diagram of what I remember.
So while it was dark, I only remember the one small (VERY small window) and a bit dank, it gave us a spot to go play when the weather was bad. Otherwise, we were outdoors! Did you have a basement or attic for play?
My A-Z this year are random thoughts, ideas, and whatever pops into my mind for the letter of the day. As in previous years, I will keep it short and sweet.
Till next time…
We had a basement in our home when I was a kid. It had one of those giant octopus type furnaces in the center of it. There was a stairway from the kitchen down to it, with a landing that had an outside door, then down to it with more stairs. We had a pantry area with shelves for canned goods, but I don’t ever remember any on the shelves. There was a mysterious trunk in there I don’t ever remember opening. We had room for a ping pong table in one corner and a pool table in another. It was an unfinished basement. We had a lot of good times playing pool and ping pong there.
Sounds very similar to my basement memories. Great for rainy day play!
I have never lived in a house with a basement and I don’t remember having a designated playroom so I guess it was bedrooms or the garden…
We always played outdoors unless the weather didn’t allow. As the only girl in the neighborhood, I climbed trees to get away from the boys and be able to read. I had sticky pitch on my play clothes all the time.
Our basements were similar. There was no playroom down there though. The only basement we played in was our maternal grandparents. My grandfather had a workshop and I made dollhouse furniture and boats. We dyed Easter eggs down there and played made up games if the weather was bad.
Interesting. My foster grandparents (who raised my mother) had a half basement under their house and my grandfather built small boats in the winter. My paternal grandparents had a cellar that only held food that had been canned. It was really small.
the things I made were just small pieces of wood nailed together. They were most basic. My grandfather made good stuff though. Especially my dollhouse into which I put my very basic chairs and beds.
I always wanted a wooden dollhouse but had to settle for one of those old metal ones with plastic furniture. By the time I got it, I had outgrown playing with it.
Our basement was not very playable, though I do remember we had a big cardboard box down there for a while, that we pretended was a spaceship. There was also a rope for hanging chickens my parents used after learning you don’t just cut their heads off unless you want to chase them around bleeding all over the place with no head. My parents also turned a root storage room down there into a fallout shelter with supplies. I wonder if we had plenty of newspapers to cover our heads and use as approximate date of death papers…Such fond memories of the basement…lol!
My mom did send us out in the rain to play sometimes. We had a large Victorian farmhouse, so our bedrooms were huge, and we had a summer kitchen that was a spare room and an attached barn with outhouse in it, so we had lots of options. The attic was reserved as an extension area for hide and seek when our six cousins came over to play with the four of us. 10 kids…ugh. The adults were probably out sitting in the rain so we could have the house!
Wow, a fallout shelter! All I remember is hiding under our desks or lining up in the hallway at school. Eeep! Cousins are a wonderful thing. My cousins grew up in a large farmhouse style home and I remember having so much room to play when I visited. There were four girl and one boy cousin but the boy was usually out farming with our uncle. We girls always had a blast!
So many uses for one space and that’s not unusual. For us, the basement is for storage so we played in a corner of the livingroom or any room that isn’t the kitchen.
Have a lovely day.
We did have a small room that held my mother’s sewing machine, a small cot for when we were sick, and a record player. I would often go there to read if the weather was bad. Too dark/dim in the basement!
We had a basement growing up with a laundry room, storage area, space for my dad’s model trains, and a play (then later a chill) area. It was a fun place for my sibling and me. We even had an air hockey table. Growing up in Ohio, the space was also used during tornado warnings!
I’d forgotten about my dad setting up his train table down there for a couple of years. Thanks for adding to my memories! New England coast – no tornados!!
I’m happy to have reminded you! 🙂
I grew up in a two bedroom apartment in a New York City housing project in a 14 story building. Nope, no basement. The first home my husband and I bought (in Wichita, Kansas) didn’t have one either. And, we’ve never owned a Cape Cod. Alana ramblinwitham
It’s always fun to compare our histories!
Some of the places I lived during childhood had a basement. Good post. Seems like a fun play area.
Thank you for commenting on my blog during the A to Z Challenge this month. Please check out the giveaway on my W post.
J Lenni Dorner (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZchallenge
It was perfect for rainy or snowy days. Thanks for dropping by!!
We did not have a basement, but when I was in high school, we moved into a passive-solar heated, earth-sheltered home that my dad designed. It was our underground home, our own hobbit hole. From the south side, it looked like a relatively “regular” house, but from the north side, all you saw was a roof. We would sometimes hear deer (or our goats, when they got out of their fenced enclosure) walking across our roof. My parents still live in that house.
Oh my, that is so awesome! My ex and I often discussed alternative houses like that. So cool!!
I’ve always wanted a basement! As a kid, because it felt like it would be such a private play area. And as an adult, for more storage. (Okay and maybe a private escape, too, haha.) But not many houses here have basements. We have attics for storage but unless you really insulate them, they’re too uncomfortable to be in for a long stretch of time. I had friends who had attics accessible by stairs hidden in a closet, but mine have always been a pull-down ladder in the hallway so it’s not worth trying to make that space liveable.
– Allison
https://lightningflashwriting.blogspot.com/
As an adult, I’ve only had the crawl-space type of attice and not more basements.
No basement or attic to play in for me. We played outside or in the den.
Ah, den! That’s the word I couldn’t remember for our spare room.
Living in the sub-tropics we didn’t have attics or basements – in fact I’m not sure they’re seen much anywhere in Australia though I could be wrong. In Queensland, house used to typically be built up off the ground for ventilation. the underneath area served many purposes: washing, workbench, play area.
That reminds me of some of the coastal homes here in the states. Underneath was usually used for parking though. I like your ideas better.
Houses in Malaysia don’t typically have basements or attics but some homeowners have opted to remodel their existing house to include these rooms mimicking homes in the US
Wow, that’s interesting! Sounds like many home in our coastal areas where they have raised houses.
We do have houses on stilts here along the coastal areas too due to floods