One of the first purchases we made when we moved into this house was a king sized water bed. I had always wanted one and the heater was an added bonus. We needed a bigger bed, the kids were growing up, and when they wanted to snuggle, the queen bed didn’t fit the whole bunch of us. You see we would lie in the bed, and then the kids would trickle in on weekend mornings. The first one in would be the hot dog and as the others woke and came to wake us and snuggle, we got some ketchup and mustard too. Steve and I were always the bun and some mornings we had condiments with the hot dog, some mornings not. As they grew older and bigger,it was only us the plain old bun, not as fun, but Millie would come to greet us and be our hotdog sometimes.
As the kids grew bigger, we grew older as well and because the water bed was so close to the ground it was getting harder for Steve to get out of it. He had knee problems and he also began to flop a lot at night with his sleep apnea. With Steve's sleeping issues, those once small soothing waves turned into tsunamis when he rolled over or got back into bed. It got bad enough that I couldn’t sleep with him anymore in our waterbed. We opted for a regular king size bed. Once you go king, you never want to go back and Steve slept with so many pillows propping his knees we couldn’t go back to a queen bed if we wanted to. While Steve was out on the road, that bed seemed much larger than normal so I used it like an office as I took my computer to bed along with a few books. It was quite roomy and I didn't have to remove anything until Steve came home.
Millie enjoyed that bed too. She piled up in the bed with me and took over Steve’s whole side of the bed when he was gone. I believe sometimes she resented him being home because then she had to assume the role of dog, and sleep on the floor. Millie always loved Steve, more than me even though I was the one who took care of her. She knew who the master of the house was and she wanted to please him. If she had a particularly tasty food item to hide for later, she would bury it under Steve’s pillow, just for him. You would not believe the things we found there over the years. I remember one night Steve plopped his head down on his pillow and said “ow”. Buried under his pillow was an enormous ham bone left over from our red beans that night. I thought Millie had taken it outside to eat, but no, she put it in her safe place to share with her master.
Once we went shopping in Montgomery for the whole day and Steve talked about going home to eat his Oreos with milk. Steve loved his Oreos and milk and we had some on the kitchen table waiting on us when we got home. We walked in the door, Millie gave us such a sweet greeting and we were happily greeting her back until we saw the now empty Oreo bag lying on the floor. I thought Steve was going to blow a gasket he was so angry. He started yelling "Bad dog" at Millie for stealing his treat. His fantasy was now a tragedy made worse by settling in to watch television instead and finding Oreos in the couch cushions. She had buried Steve’s Oreos in our couch because she never knew when we were coming home again. Millie is a smart dog and she felt that she needed to be prepared for hard times ahead so she laid in snacks for those times. We went to bed that night without the Oreos and milk and Steve was still grumbling about it as he turned down the sheets. Then he laid his head on his pillow, put his hand under his pillow to fluff it and found the most beautiful surprise. Millie had saved him some Oreos too, stashed in her favorite place under Steve’s pillow. I was so touched by her love for her master, Steve not so much. I laughed for a long time after that and teased him about pouting over Oreos. I told him how blessed he was to have such a loving dog. He didn't see it my way, but through the years he forgave her and it became a good memory.
Our bed, I will sell, the memories I will keep. Mary has slept in there with me while they were in for the funeral and again just now over the last few days. It has been nice snuggling in it watching movies on my computer this Thanksgiving weekend. Think about how many memories your bed has. It wasn’t only our children snuggling with us in that bed playing hot dog, or Millie's favorite burial ground. My nephew, my granddaughter and some very privileged yard youngun’s snuggled there too. Why even my girlfriends and I retreat there just to sit and talk or pray. It is a refuge and a safe place to rest and get away from it all. Our bed was an important part of us like a conference table in any corporate office or a couch in a psychologist office. We talked things out in that bed, solved financial issues there, hugged and kissed away boo boo’s for our kids there, shared laughs and had many tickle sessions with the kids in that bed. There was jumping for joy on that big ole trampoline, and much crying in grief over many of life’s issues. This bed was an important piece of office furniture and very therapeutic for our whole family.
There were times when I hated that bed, because Steve stayed in it so much because of the bouts of depression he had early on in our married life. Many times we all piled into the bed, trying to wake him up, so we could all just be together sharing our love and joy. You see those bad memories really have left and morphed into good ones now. I suppose I won't miss the actual bed, just what it symbolizes. It was the most comfortable, intimate, informal family gathering place in the house. What I will miss will be the lost opportunities of having large family gatherings on it ever again. I guess my new bed will be smaller gatherings, but with the same king sized love of the old bed. That's the ticket.
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