When I was a small girl I had a good friend whose home was outfitted with a laundry chute. There were five children in Beth's family and I'm sure the laundry chute came in very handy. One day my friend and I discovered a wonderful game. It was somewhat similar to a game the children in my mother's daycare used to call "Garbage Truck". We found it great fun to drop stuffed animals, dolls, and blankets down the chute, run downstairs to retrieve them, and then drop them down all over again. Running up and down the stairs was good exercise and Beth's mom didn't seem to mind the game. It was one of our favorites. I do think I recall her father stepping out of his office on occasion to quiet the ruckus we were making. He was the minister at our church and his office was at the bottom of the stairs. All was well with the laundry chute game until one day we decided to put all of Beth's toys down the hole in the wall; stuffed animals, dolls, blankets, dishes, little people... whatever toys were in her bedroom. Evidently we overdid it that particular day because her mother was no longer amused and put a quick and sudden stop to the fun.It's been forty years since we played the laundry chute game and the memory still brings a smile to my face. Beth's family moved away to Massachusetts when we were just six or seven. I went into the parsonage years later as a teenager, found myself glancing at the little door in the hallway wall, and imagined Beth's toys spilling out onto the floor.
I always secretly wished for a laundry chute.
Never had one, Oh Chute!
ReplyDeleteLoved your childhood story. I could just picture it!
But our friends in Colorado had a beautiful home and they had laundry chutes in the upstairs bedrooms. I thought this was really cool that the dirty clothes would end up in a basket in the basement for laundry.
Martha, a confession ~ I always make extra pie dough, so I guess you can't call it left over!!!!
I've never had one, either. I think they are wonderful and wish they still made them. [Some such stuff about "fire codes," and what-not. ;)] I think they are a fantastic idea.
ReplyDeleteMy kids got to play the same game you mention just last summer at a friend's house. They LOVED it and wanted to go back to play it again!!! Alas, they are moving. Game over.
In our house in Irondequoit we had one. But we were only there two years, I loved it. The shocker was that the previous owners had "stopped" it up to make room in the entry for about three pairs of shoes. Joel and his dad put it back in working order. The chute started in a closet in the hall, so I don't think Caleb ever knew about it, he was only three when we moved. I miss the chute! I remember having one in the house I moved from when I was 4. Why do I have a habit of leaving houses with chutes? So sad.
ReplyDeletePS- At our house in Irondequoit we had a milk door where we got our mail. It was a little "cubby" in the wall where they used to deliver the milk, with a door on the outside and one on the inside. All I had to do was open the door on the inside to get the mail. I wished though that they still delivered milk. I miss the unique things in my old house.
My aunt had one in her house, and my brothers used to slide down it....they were crazy.
ReplyDelete