The key
One day a very young me walked into my grandma’s simple kitchen and stopped dead, transfixed and wide-eyed. There, on the other side of her rolling floor, was the marvel of my life. It was a dollhouse made out of a tall cardboard box. A townhouse (not that I knew at the time what a townhouse was). I’d never seen the like.
Some of its contents were real honest-to-Woolworth’s store-bought dollhouse furniture, and maybe a plastic baby or two, but most of it was created out of scraps. Imagine custom curtains made from bits of the pink plastic ruffle thumb-tacked to the edge of pantry shelves (eat your heart out, Martha Stewart). Oh, it was wonderful, and I spent countless happy hours playing with that, living, of course, inside it. Pretending.
That is why it is Grandma’s fault that I look at homes like these and immediately start placing my furniture. Imagining living in rooms shaped like that. Imagining walking up those stairs and being elegant. Imagining curtains of vines and trees. Imagining such refuge from the wind-up world.
Pretending is the key that unlocks all doors, so I can go in and know just where the chocolate is.
With thanks to photographer Kerfe at methodtwomadness,
submitted to Dan Antion’s
Thursday Doors Writing Challenge
Oddments 
May 10, 2024 at 11:57 am
This is wonderful, Maureen! I love looking at homes like this and imagining. And that kitchen must be huge, so think of all the places you could hide the chocolate….the mind boggles!
May 10, 2024 at 12:14 pm
Oooh, yes, I like your kind of imagining! So many little Snickers bars, so little time!
May 10, 2024 at 12:07 pm
I love this, Maureen. Pretending is such a wonderful thing, especially for a child (although I still fall into the trap).
My grandmother had a drawer at the bottom of her white metal stove that was full of tools, including a small hammer that I simply adored. I sat on the floor and played with those tools as she cooked and baked. I still have that hammer.
May 10, 2024 at 12:18 pm
What a wonderful memento! And what an insight into family influence. Your grandma must have known what she was starting as she tried to cook around you, I had a son who did something like that: every day at dinnertime he would pull out as many pots and pans as he could so I could fall over them. As for pretending, how could we write without it?
May 11, 2024 at 12:16 pm
I can imagine your ballet steps while finishing dinner. I think my grandmother knew what she was doing. The longer I live, the more I’m certain of that.
May 10, 2024 at 12:26 pm
Wonderful story telling Maureen. I was smiling at the Woolworths reference…brought back good memories.
May 10, 2024 at 12:29 pm
Thanks, Suzette! It’s good to know that others have Woolworth’s memories; such wonders are long gone, at least in these parts.
May 10, 2024 at 12:51 pm
Yes, gone from here (Canada) as well. Thanks Maureen.
May 10, 2024 at 12:54 pm
Love this Maureen, and I love the dream-maker home in the photo. Ooo, the fantasies! Then I think about washing all those windows, cleaning all those nooks and crannies inside, climbing those steps every day…..pretty much a fantasy killer!
When I was a little girl, my dad made me a ginormous dollhouse. White with a bright red roof and front door. He also made my brother a huge matching garage….more like a mechanic’s shop, for all his cars and trucks. They were Christmas gifts.
My mother made curtains for all the windows, hung on toothpicks that were glued to the walls on the ends of the toothpicks. She crocheted scatter rugs for all the rooms. The furniture was made from cardboard, empty thread spools, and the dining room table was an upside down jelly jar lid with one of the thread spools for the pedestal. My dad also made a picnic table and benches. Some things, like the bathtub, were fashioned out of clay.
How I loved my dollhouse and loved pretending and letting my imagination run wild.
How I love this walk down Memory Lane Maureen. Thank you.
Ginger🦋
May 10, 2024 at 1:40 pm
Oh, Ginger, that might be the one dollhouse that could be better than mine! What lucky little girls we were! We made our own worlds in those, didn’t we? You are right, of course, about the work required in reality, and that’s why pretending is ever so much better. I don’t remember a vacuum, mop, or dust cloth in my dollhouse! It’s lovely to meet you on Memory Lane — thanks, Ginger!
May 10, 2024 at 2:48 pm
Oh, I love this Maureen. I had a similar house made from a wooden tomato crate. My granny also helped we decorate it. I even had a small Christmas tree. Sadly, Hunka Munca and Tom Thumb never visited(from Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter).
May 10, 2024 at 4:50 pm
A Christmas tree in a dollhouse?? That is too awesome for words! A dollhouse made from a tomato crate would be a thing of beauty indeed. What a treasure! I don’t know what to say about the mice. I’m not sure I’d want mice in my pretend house, but then again, if they’re pretend mice, maybe I would just get out the pretend cheese. What great memories we have! Thanks, Robbie!
May 11, 2024 at 5:49 am
My pleasure 🌼
May 10, 2024 at 4:14 pm
Maureen, this is so warm and wonderful. You closed it in the most beautiful way with “Pretending is the key that unlocks all doors, so I can go in and know just where the chocolate is.” Huge hugs.
May 10, 2024 at 4:52 pm
Thanks, Teagan! Remembering my dollhouse is good for me. (And so is chocolate!)
May 10, 2024 at 7:08 pm
The cardboard box house proved to be worth its weight in gold… or even in chocolate. You’ve brought back vague memories of our dolls’ house, although I don’t remember it as well as I think I ought to. It was collapsible, I think.
May 10, 2024 at 8:54 pm
So good to hear from you! Yes, that cardboard dollhouse was worth more than gold. Maybe even more than chocolate — and that’s saying something!
May 11, 2024 at 12:10 am
You had me at cardboard box and curtains but reeled me in with chocolate. 🙂 This is perfect, and a wonderful evening gift. Thank you for sharing your gift of words with all of us. 🙂
May 11, 2024 at 1:35 am
Thanks, Judy! It’s good to know that the cardboard box and the curtains meant something to you too. Of course, the chocolate — there’s no sense daydreaming myself into a gorgeous house without chocolate!
May 11, 2024 at 6:24 pm
Oh this is great Maureen. I do that too, with all these houses. What a wonderful dollhouse that must have been! We never lose that capacity to play and dream.
Thanks for using my image for your wonderful story. (K)
May 23, 2024 at 1:20 am
What a warm and lovely story, Maureen. I do love the last line!
May 23, 2024 at 10:25 am
Thanks, Brenda! So we can pretend you are visiting me there and I can offer you some chocolate cake!
May 25, 2024 at 7:53 pm
What a lovely memory! And “know just where the chocolate is” was such a perfect ending, it gave me goosebumps!
May 25, 2024 at 8:16 pm
Thank you! What a great compliment! Home is always where the chocolate is. And, yes, it is a lovely memory. I’d love to go back to that kitchen — with Grandma, of course.
June 3, 2024 at 2:54 pm
Oh I love this! I used old shoe boxes to make dollhouses before I got a “real” one.
Sometimes I would pretend a bush was the house and make little chairs from clumps of dirt, and tables from twigs and sticks when no one else was around to play with. Well, the fairies and I had a great time. They loved their chairs and tables. 😂
I still have my dollhouse and furniture. I love looking at houses and imaging as well. I agree with Marian knowing just where the chocolate is a perfect ending!!
June 3, 2024 at 3:38 pm
What wonderful times those were, whether with cardboard or shrub houses. Pretending is such an important part of childhood — or at least I think so. I have a few old pieces of dollhouse things, and they bring back not just happy times but another planet!
June 3, 2024 at 5:05 pm
What planet?!!
June 3, 2024 at 5:34 pm
That would be the planet Then. As opposed to the planet Now. So different!