Friday Flashback

After we left the little orange house in Campbell's Cross, we lived in a big red brick farm house in Bealton, Ontario. We rented for a couple of years before we moved up the road to Boston. The large dark rectangle in this picture is a tractor barn where Queenie had her puppies and bit my friend Glynnis. The hay barn isn't there anymore and I'm glad about that, that barn gave me the creeps! The house is square and sits just above where that little drive goes off on the right side of the driveway.

My room, the room I shared with my sister and younger brother was at the top of the stairs, on the back side of the house. There was a large tree (also not there anymore) outside the window. The branches scratched on the glass when the wind blew and I was convinced there was something besides us three kids living in that room. Turns out I was right.

My older brothers teased me about lots of things, but I don't ever remember them saying a word about the creepiness I felt about that room at the top of the stairs. Maybe they didn't know, or maybe they felt it too. When I had to go upstairs by myself, I'd hug the stair wall, and reach around the corner and push on the light switch before I went in. Those push button switches are just about all I remember about that house, the switches, and the bees.

One night I reached in to turn on the light and something brushed against my fingers. I screamed, someone came running and walked into my bedroom full of honeybees. Okay, so probably not FULL, but I was 7, and a dozen or so bees in your bedroom and it might as well be full. There was some investigation and a small hole above my brother's bed (whew!) was discovered when another bee (SCREEEEAM!) flew out. My mother, ever the sensible one realized that bees or not, tomorrow was a school day so the door was closed, a towel probably jammed under the door, and we camped out on the playroom floor. The next day after school, the flower striped wallpaper in that part of the room was gone, replaced by a 4x8 sheet of sheetrock.

I don't know who took care of the them, but the bees didn't come back, at least not before we moved again up the road to the former store with the 12" beams and square head nails.