Because Flat Is Bugging Me To Post

Mom used to work for FedEx back in the early eighties. This was long before airline terrorism was an issue, and FedEx used to let their employees "jump seat" on their planes. Mom would go to Florida to see Grandma every once and a while or to St. Louis to visit her sister. I never thought of it as anything special. I don't recall the routine at the house changing much just because Dad was in charge. Pop must have felt differently.

I was about twelve or thirteen I guess and Mom had decided to bounce out for the weekend to catch up with her brother in Dallas. She had left in the early afternoon and we were all sitting in the den. Our den was very small and on the other side of one wall was the living room. This was back when they built houses with company in mind. Both rooms were pretty small with barely enough room for a couch and table in each. My brother, my sister, and I were all sitting on the couch watching TV when my dad walked into the room. He looked pissed, which wasn't unusual, he always looked pissed (he wasn't, he just looked that way). He told the three of us to get off of the couch and then told me to help him move it. This was all pretty new, since he didn't do much after a twelve hour day of work except eat, drink a beer and fall asleep in his lazy-boy. We all felt that something was afoot. He sent my brother out to the shed for a couple of hammers. My interest was definitely piqued. When brother returned, Dad took a hammer from him, reached way back like a major league pitcher getting ready to throw a split fingered fastball and punched a basketball sized hole in the wall!!!!! We all looked at each other in amazement and then looked back at Dad. He raised and eyebrow and said "What are y'all waiting for? An invitation? Help me rip down this wall." OMG! Kids and demolition are a definite match. We had the sheet rock ripped off of the wall and out on the curb in about an hour. That's when the call from the lazy-boy over took Dad's will. We put all of the furniture back like nothing had ever happened and he sacked out in his sleeping chair.

Three days later, we hear Mom pull up in the driveway. My siblings and I were brimming with excitement. This would be better than watching Hee-Haw on Saturday that's for sure! Mom walks in the door to find a clean house, three smiling kids lined up on the couch and where a wall used to be? Nothing but two by four studs with electrical wire hanging between them. The only thing I remember Mom saying is "I will never leave town again."

Turns out, the wall in question was a load bearing wall. Dad talked a neighbor, who was a carpenter, into helping him figure out how to remove the rest of the frame. It took three months. Then, since the carpet in the living room didn't match the carpet in the den, we went another six months with two toned carpet in our new giant family room. In the end, it was a definite improvement for the little house, but Mom, true to her word, never left us alone with Dad again.