Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for February 23, 2010

It’s not necessarily that Alix is glad to be rid of Holly. Privacy is a wonderful thing - even the people you love dearly can be a strain if you have no time or space to yourself.

And it’s lovely to see Alix’s spontaneous joy! Now she has a room of her own, a place where she has power over the way things are kept.

haha yes, my two youngest (a 13 year old girl and a 9 year old boy) shared a room until 2 years ago - then we managed to make a small private room for the boy, were they both glad? take a guess…

That girl has mouth of Ms. Pac Man on her.

C’mon Holly, you were just as excited to move out.

This is a good one.

Go Alix!!! I think if I had Holly for a sister, I too would volunteer to help her move. But then again look at Holly’s pov. You don’t have a ‘pesty’ little sister around when you want privacy and also not having to share drawer and dresser space with.

Everyone wins, in short.

I was SO tired of sharing a bedroom with my big sister, that I moved into the garage (well, the attic over the garage) when I was 12. Dad made me sleep in the family room during the winter, since the attic wasn’t heated. 100+ degrees with a box fan was preferable to sharing a room with my sister. To this day, even though she’s 50+, she still has such a messy place, that there isn’t any visible floor space.

I shared a room with my sister from age 4 until age 16+ –it is a BIG deal to get your own space and in my case I was out of the house for 2 years before I actually lived completely alone. I do now and relish it.

I and my sister shared a room had no choice no basement and two bedroom house. I worked for a low wage job and wanted independence moved out for awhile but had to go back:( How I missed my independence. I have a boy and girl and the only time they shared a room when we where in a two bedroom house only 4 years they had their own beds. They where glad when we did move and they got separate rooms. Been married almost 28 years and somehow I wish I had a separate room too much noise need quiter area to sleep.

To Rmom=have her watch “Hoarders” on TV. Maybe she might see how that kind of living looks to outsiders. I’d suggest the show to my daughter-in-law and her daughter, but in their case, know it would be counter productive. At this point, my biggest worry is great granddaughters won’t ever know what a clean house is. Come to think of it, neither does my son. He tells me I am too neat!

You all know what’s going to happen, don’t you? I’m betting some Bookers that Grandma is going to come back home after the girls have their rooms all set up!

I’d take that bet in a heartbeat, Dry, except I don’t know what you mean by Bookers and I don’t know how I’d collect after winning them.

(1) I don’t think Evie will be coming back anytime soon; and (2) If she does come back earlier than I expect, I wouldn’t imagine she’d insist that Holly give the room back.

Setting this up just to reverse it would be cheap plotting, a manufactured conflict, and I think Jan’s a better writer than that.

Of course, these characters don’t age appreciably (Max appears to be the same age he was before Wally and Joan even married, let alone since Luci was born), and if Evie comes back in four years of real time Holly and Alix will still be their current ages. At that point, there might be a slim possibility that the room will be an issue, but Holly’s residence in it would have been long established, not something that was given and then immediately rescinded.

War stories! The year I was 11 we moved across the state but couldn’t immediately find a house. Spent one year in a tiny house divided into a duplex, thin walls with the landlord on the other side. We had to be completely quiet in the evening. Only one bedroom so my folks put our 4 year old brother in their room with a curtain divider and the bunk beds for my 6 year old sister and me went in the upstairs hall. Just enough room. The landlords had a family party every weekend. Who could sleep? The next year we found a two bedroom house to rent. I was more than happy to share a bedroom with the little kids….

Never have understood why Holly didn’t get her own room when Joan moved next door.

At frist Joan left all of her office stuff in her room because Wally did not have room for her office. Then Wally built Joan an office over his garage. The room was kind a forgotten about then.

I love Grams! She puts everything into perspective! Her daughters get so caught up in their lives that they forget about the rest of the world. (same thing we all did when we were raising our kids) But now Gramma can focus on the rest of the world and give to others…I think it sets a great example!

Only experience could convey joyous dominion . Others wish .

Thanks for the suggestion, Mythreesons, but I’m afraid it is hopeless. She used to have a 3 bedroom house, plus basement & attic that was just filled with stuff. She sold everything that wouldn’t fit in her car, and moved out of that state. Now that she owns another house, she keeps collecting stuff. A few months after Dad died, I spent a lot of time helping Mom downsize, so she (Mom) could move into a smaller house. That was enough for me to become a “recovering pack rat”. Mom died a few months ago, and now I’m spending several hours a week sorting through the stuff she kept in THAT house. I’m just hoping my sister will get her house (she’s painting, etc.) ready, so she’ll have room to take the stuff she wants from Mom’s house, as I’m not going to store it for her! I’m not looking forward to when my sister dies, as she has no children, and so the task may fall to me. I’m hoping that is a long time off in the future!

Rmom sorry for your loss. When my dad passed away and he knew his time was coming our mom put everything on hold while we ran to the hosiptal that was 10 to 11 years ago. My mom is not a pack rack there where things she got rid of. Sadly she keeps his clothes. I do not think most men could wear his clothes my dad was very skinny. 32 to 34 waiste I don’t remember the length of pants sizes. My husband’s mother was a different story it was agony going through all her stuff she was 88 when she passed not that healthy either. Very cold blooded. I have enjoyed all comments on this strip. Been interesting how people cope growing up. Just N of us there is a town that has annual garage sales and we went to one estate sale and I visited I marvelled how the parents could get a big family in a small house.

I’ve had this kind of experience (not to the extent you have had) in moving my mother to retirement apartment and then emptying that later. Hers wasn’t bad as she wasn’t a collector of stuff, but what a difference when my mother-in-law moved to NH. Cats had full run of house, smell was terrible, and for some reason she thought that as a Gemini, she should have two of everything. Refrigerator was revolting. Her “household help” had cheated her out of most of her money, but she was so secretive no one including daughter who lived in town, knew what was going on. Police could do nothing. So, watch over your elders, everyone!

By the way, my husband died less than a year ago, and when his children were here for the funeral I had them take everything that was his that they wanted, keeping only sentimental items, and then I took his clothing to organization who helped veterans and homeless. A closet full of clothing never to be worn again is depressing.

When my fiance’s dad came down with cancer, the younger two boys and I worked on trying to get a hand on the house while he was in the hospital. I scraped years worth of gunk out of the bathroom and kitchen. The boys? They had the harder task. Dad had every magazine having to do with military or historical matters that ever existed. And Books- same thing. There was a little path from the front door to his chair, and from his chair to the tv. A path to the kitchen, a path to the bathroom, and a path to the bedroom. There were stacks of books and magazines everywhere. And boxes of things he bought from tv ads that he never opened. We had to take out huge piles of stuff just to make sure that he could get around with a walker. When we opened the door to the sewing room, we discovered that not only had Dad never settled Mom’s estate, he’d just put her things in the sewing room and closed the door. At some point the (portable) dishwasher quit, so he moved it in there too. Without taking the dishes out of it.

When he died a few months later the real excavation began. The older brother, sister and aunt came out. The boys had me take sis and auntie out for an afternoon- they’d discovered the rather exciting porn stash and wanted them out so they wouldn’t know about it.

I was astounded at how much stuff there had been in a very ordinary three-bedroom ranch. When the furniture was all out and we were cleaning up for the new owners, my sweetie turned to me and remarked that he’d grown up there and never knew it was so big.

Episode 181

Surprising how no one seems to remember that the agreement was for Holly to donate $100 to charity - THEN she gets the room.