Circles

When I was a kid, both my sets of grandparents had circles in their houses.  At my mom's parents' house, you'd walk in the front door and take a right to the hallway.  Then left down to the end of the hall, left through the kitchen and dining room, and left again to the living room and you were back at the front door.  At my dad's parents' house there are three circles: the front room, dining room, kitchen, entryway one; the study, entryway, tv room one, and the hall to bedroom one.  That house has pocket doors, and the study and bedroom both have two doors each.  My brother and cousins and I spent a lot of time running in circles, or, when we were supposed to be quiet, sneaking in circles through the rooms.  I'm sure my dad and his two brothers and two sisters did, too. 

As much as I gripe about not liking (at all) where we live now, this house does have a circle.  Ours is living room, dining room, kitchen, entryway, living room.  When the kids were little they'd chase each other and play tag, running and running and running through the rooms. 

I think one of the reasons my dad and stepmom bought the house they did in Houston was that there is a big fireplace in the middle of it, separating the living room from the dining room and making a circle.  My dad always says that houses need to have circles. 

I remember that forever ago, not too long after my parents divorced, my dad had an apartment in Garland.  This was the place where he amazed us by snapping cockroaches with dishtowels and where my brother and I roller skated down some steps (on purpose, no helmets or pads of course).  It was also the place where I blew out a candle burning in the windowsill a little too hard and got wax all over the place, including the carpet.  The apartment only had one bedroom.  My brother and I slept on the black and white houndstooth foldout couch every weekend.  But there was a patio, and there was a sliding glass door in the dining room that led to the patio and there was a very low, like, on the ground, window in my dad's bedroom that looked out onto the patio.  One day my dad decided we needed a circle, so he opened the window and took out the screen and he opened the patio door and moved the dining table over.  And my brother and I spent the afternoon chasing each other in circles.