This is my ninth year of blogging the A to Z Challenge. Everyday I will share something about my family’s life during 1950. This was a year that the USA federal census was taken and the first one that I appear in. At the end of each post I will share a book from my childhood collection.
Naps were a regular part of my day back then. Usually I fell asleep because I remember several times when I woke up and nobody seemed to be around. Once I wandered down the hall and found the movie “The Thief of Baghdad” being shown. I came in just as the genie was coming out of the bottle and it was quite frightening. I didn’t see the rest of the movie.
Another time I woke up and, again no one was around. This time I heard music and noise outside and went out to find that the church was holding a carnival with rides and I don’t know what else. I think there was even a ferris wheel like the one my sister got for Christmas that year. I seem to have had my nightgown on and was hustled back into the house.
In the photographs at my grandparents in Detroit, Pearl doesn’t appear in some of them and my grandmother wrote on the back and speculated that she must have still been sleeping from her nap.
The same happened in Springfield when my cousin Barbara didn’t appear in the photo, my mother guessed she was still asleep from her nap.
I remember this little 2 x 3 inch book. The picture I remember is of the writing on the walls that was done by the naughty little guest, who was actually the little goat’s imaginary friend, ie herself.
I don’t think I have any memories of my own nap-times, but I certainly remember naps for my children — both the respite while they slept and the sinking feeling when they were supposed to be asleep and then weren’t!
Q is for Questions
I remember later naps when I was four and we were in Detroit, looking at the yellow shades and the white curtains and the sunshine and shadows making pictures.
Even more I remember laying down with my own children later to get them to go to sleep and waking up an hour or so later. They did go to sleep too.
I must have not liked naps back then as my mom would bring in her alarm (a wind up model, with glowing, uranium painted dials numbers, marking, and tips of the hands ) and put it on the nightstand next to me and I would be told to not get out of bed until the hands were in the position of a later time when nap time was over.
Your mother must have needed a break. I think I went to sleep, I just woke up before I was expected to. When I turned 5, I no longer had to take a nap.
I do not remember naps o my youth but I love naps now!
You were a pretty good napper as a child too!
Naps definitely part of my childhood and imposed on my children too though I remember my son was not such a good napper, his room was usually upside down from playing after the “nap”, but he did sleep all night.
That is really important – sleeping all night. I didn’t realize how wonderful a full night of sleep was until I had children.
I still nap a lot lol
You and my daughter Ayanna. lol. And I must admit I also take my share of naps.