Christine and I got talking about clothes chutes the other day. She didn’t have one in her house while growing up. I told her I remember visiting friends’ houses where their clothes chutes ended at the basement ceiling. They just placed baskets on the floor to catch the falling clothes. I used to think those chutes very strange (although they were probably a smart innovation (cheaper and effective).
Talk of chutes got me thinking about the clothes chute at 2846. It certainly was a focal point of fun. Tim remembers hiding in it and eating his “stolen” frozen pies. What a hiding spot for such nefarious nibbling. If Mom ever did come down stairs while he was in there he was trapped, and it was very likely, if she did come down, that she was thinking about the laundry. Did you ever get caught, Tim?
I remember playing hide and seek and hiding in the clothes chute in the basement. It was a pretty easy hiding spot to find, though. I remember improving it by hiding under lots of dirty laundry still in the chute (must have been quite small). I also think I remember trying to shinny up the chute from the basement. If I did try this, I never got too far.
On the second floor the chute was also lots of fun. There was a small space in the ceiling of the chute that allowed you to get your hand above the chute. Pat, Beth, and I made a ghost detector once: a toilet paper roll with saran wrap held on each end with rubber bands; if you looked through the roll (which had magic writing on it I think), and also through Winky’s ears, and also through a key hole (all at the same time), you could see ghosts. Not sure that we ever managed to get the proper items lined up for a ghost viewing, but I remember that we kept the ghost detector hidden in the space above the ceiling of the clothes chute. It might still be there.
I also remember being told to stand in the kitchen with the clothes chute door open and to watch. Dan or Tim would be upstairs throwing stuff down, and I’d watch it come down. I also remember being the one doing the throwing for younger kids. Finally, I remember how much fun it was to slam the clothes chute doors. Mom wanted them closed, but not slammed. Well, she sometimes got the first, but seldom the last.
8 comments:
Tommy,
I loved looking for ghosts with the help of Winkie the Dog.
As much as we wanted to see one, I am not sure we ever did.
Isn't it funny the things we remember. Do you think our kids with all the electronic gadgets will ever have the strange memories that we all have?
I remember many a good frozen pies eaten in the clothes chute. I don't remember Mom every catching me in there but I do remember sitting in the and having someone drop clothes on me. I also remember getting scolded by Mom for eating the frozen pies out of the nearby freezer. The evidence was my pie wrapper that I politely put in the waste paper basket in the laundry room - if I wasn't so neat I wouldn't have been caught!
Geez Tim no wonder you got caught. My kids did not grow up with benefit of clothes chute to hide in BUT my middle guy used to go into the freezer and scrape off the tops of things like banana bread and coffee cake and put them back in the bag and back in the freezer. When I would take them out to use it looked like rats had been in the freezer - yup a big Michael rat.
I loved that clothes chute!!! I could never have gotten all the clothes that I had to wash downstairs any more easily! And my big fear was that I would lose one of you younger ones down there as you peeked at what your older siblings were doing there>
When Esther and Dick built their house in Spencerport they had one put in for her because she loved ours so but the new houses did not allow the room that we had in an older and it was too narrow to put sheets down.
I was always grateful, too , that we did not have a "dumb waiter" as the next door house had [ Kesslers] for I could see you kids riding up and down all the time!!! MOM
The clothes chute was an OK place to hide in but how about the "Secret Room" on the 2nd floor behind the drawers for sheets. The place the grandchildren were never told about.
Dad
Well, if we are discussing the secret space in 2846, then I think I must admit that as we went from room to empty room in 2846 just before we left for good, Nick and I found a bottle of Holy Water. Not knowing what to do with Holy Water (we did not think it wise to pour down the sink), he thought it would be best left in 2846, so the secret space (most likely NEVER found by new owners)holds Holy Water to watch over our old home.
This is great! Yes, we had a clothes shoot in our house in Spencerport. We would send "secret messages" up and down on bits of string. The shoot went from upstairs all the way down to the basement where it ended in the basement ceiling and, yup, clothes would be caught in a laundry basket sitting on the floor. A favorite trick would be to tell the youngest to go downstairs and look up. Then you'd let go a good wad of spit and hit him (or her) right in the eye.! When Wes and I did our first bit of remodeling at the house we're in now, I insisted he put in a clothes shoot. It's quite a conversation piece for visitors who have never seen one.
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