Correct me if I’m wrong but we, my parents and siblings as they were born during or before 1964, lived in Canton,  New York for ten years i.e. 1954-64. We lived at 19 Pearl Street which was one block long between and connecting Court and State streets. The house had 3 bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom on the first floor. By the time we left Canton to move to Schenectady where our  father had grown up, the downstairs bedroom had two cribs along opposing walls, one for Margaret and one for Jim. It also had a triple bunk at the farther end from the doors and with feet facing Pearl Street, the front of the house, and a double bunk opposing the triple bunk along the opposite side wall. One of the doors to this bedroom was to the living room and the other to the downstairs bathroom. Thus, the cribs were parallel from the bunk beds along the walls closer to the doors.

 

So six of the seven youngest  kids all slept in that room. Therese was upstairs with Anne and Cathy. Mark and Robert each had a shelf in their individual bunk bed area.

 

Mary Helen and I had an entire bedroom with a twin bed each.  Mary Helen was neat and I was not. Mom and Dad gave me a tall dresser appropriate for a kid when they were upgrading and I was a married woman with my sons. They said this dresser was appropriate for me because I had written on it: “Do not take my clows; you have clows of your own” written on the back of one of the drawers in perhaps permanent crayon, marker or pen.  I said I would take it but that probably was not written by me but to me about clothes. The dresser was sent to be used by my grandkids. 

 

When Anne graduated as Salutatorian, and gave a very thoughtful speech, Mary Helen moved into the bedroom upstairs next to the upstairs bathroom at the back of the house with Cathy in a double bed. Therese had a bed in the hall and closet area between the bathroom and bedroom.

 

Margaret moved into the bedroom with  me and despite the ten years difference in age became a special friend to me as I feel about all my siblings and I am so grateful for it. But, I do recall that it was a blessing for me to have the conversations I was able to have over the years with her that we shared the room. 

 

Am I correct in remembering that we shared a closet that had no wall between Anne and Cathy’s bedroom and thus we were able to talk to each other through the clothes?