Maggie, at From Cave Walls, and Lauren, at LSS Attitude of Gratitude, alternate hosting Throwback Thursday. The idea of the prompt is for them to give us a topic and for us to write a post in which we share our own memories or experiences about the given topic. This week, Maggie asks us about our nighttime rituals growing up.
Every time I do one of these Throwback Thursday posts, I am reminded about how little I actually remember about my early life. Oh well, let’s see if this throwback jogs some memories from deep within my head.
Here are Maggie’s questions.
1) Did you share a room with a sibling, or did you have a room of your own?
There were times when I had to share a room with my older sister, but I mostly had my own room.
2) Did you resist going to bed or did you go willingly?
Not all that willingly. I remember having to go to bed by 9:00 and my parents would be in the living room watching TV. I specifically remember the show “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas.
It aired at 9 pm and I thought it was so unfair that Rusty, the son in the show who was about my age, could be up after 9:00 when I was supposed to be in bed. I guess I didn’t quite understand the concept of pre-recorded shows at the time.
3) Did someone put you to bed, tuck you in, or read you a bedtime story?
Not that I remember. I was told to wash my face, brush my teeth, get into bed, and go to sleep.
4) Was there a religious component, like prayers, to your nighttime routine?
Not that I recall.
5) Did you go to sleep immediately, or lie awake?
Sometimes I would go to sleep immediately, sometime I would lie awake for a while before falling asleep. I guess it depended upon how tired I was.
6) Did you journal, read a book, talk on the phone or with your siblings, or watch television when you were supposed to be sleeping?
No to journaling, occasional to reading, no to talking on the phone or with a sibling. As to TV, I would sneak onto the landing overlooking the living room and watch “Make Room for Daddy.”
7) Did you ever sleepwalk?
At one point, when I was sharing a room with my sister, she claimed I was sleepwalking. She asked me what I was doing and she said I told her I was going to join the army. She told me to go back to bed, and apparently I did. That was, I think, the only time I sleepwalked.
8) Did you remember having dreams? If you dreamed, did you ever have bad dreams? Do you remember any dreams specifically?
I’m sure I had dreams and, no doubt, some of them were bad dreams. But I don’t specifically recall what they were. Hell, I can’t even recall my dreams from last night!
9) Were you afraid of the dark? Did you sleep with a nightlight or sneak into your sibling’s or parent’s room at night because you were afraid?
I don’t remember being afraid of the dark and I didn’t have a nightlight.
10) Did you have or attend sleepovers or slumber parties? Feel free to elaborate.
My cousin was six months younger than me and and we were very close. I’d often sleep over at his house or he at my house on weekends.
This, That, and the Other 
It’s funny how we remember what was on TV at bedtime isn’t it?
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I totally remember my mom making me get ready for bed in the middle of Let’s Make a Deal! Why difference would 15 minutes have made? I lay there wondering what doors people chose. Traumatic!
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Oh what wondrous things were behind those doors that people chose! 😉
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‘get into bed, and go to sleep’………..or the bogeyman will get you
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I hadn’t thought about ‘Rusty’ in years. I loved how you drew parallels between your life and his. I also like knowing you snuck out to watch the show anyway. Sounds like something I might have done.
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My brother was a sleepwalker, I remember my mum telling me that once he actually left the house in the middle of winter in England. My grandfathers greyhounds brought him back by pulling on his pj pants much to my mothers horror
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That’s funny!
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You remembered a lot! ❤
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It would’ve been fun to have a landing to sneak onto and see “Make Way for Daddy.” I’ve never even heard of that one, although I’ve certainly heard of Danny Thomas. Our television was in a den or family room kind of space in the basement, and my room was on the main floor at the opposite end o… now that I think through the floor plan, it wasn’t at the opposite end of the house. There must have been good sound insulation. I don’t, however, remember a bedtime. There must’ve been one. I’m just thankful it want early. I never had to go to bed before dark. I’d guess that the reason I don’t remember bedtime is that I stayed up late to do homework from middle school on (switched to a private school system); Mom had no concept of the amount of homework we had, but at least she let me decide how to handle it. It was Mom at this point, because she had filed for divorce in the most asinine move…
I don’t remember being read bedtime stories, but someone always tucked me in and sat with me for talking and prayers. I’m not sure at exactly what age that stopped (something like ten or eleven). But I continued the prayers myself. It was usually Dad, and he’s the one who taught me the twenty-third Psalm. I didn’t have a telephone or television in my room. It was a curiosity, to me, that the girl down the street did. Sometime during high school, I got a stereo to keep in my room. I sometimes listened to that as I went to sleep or slept. I would have found it uncomfortable or impractical to read in bed. I left the door cracked so light from the bathroom came in, I didn’t have night light. Yes, we left the bathroom light all night. I only went into my parents’ room if there was a loud thunder storm, and only up until a stage when it seemed silly to be afraid of a thunder storm (again, I don’t remember how old that was).
I was never really afraid of the dark, and didn’t have many scary dreams. I’m not sure I had any nightmares at all. I had a series, once, of mostly the same dream for a week or two. My dad interpreted it as working something out in my thoughts… because I stopped having the dream after the last time ended with my landing while the other times had ended with me still floating in the sky. I never sleepwalked. I did attend sleepovers and slumber parties. When my aunt and her two daughters lived with us (for about a year), it was like the best of all of them. I think my little cousin must have had an early-ish bedtime, but my closest cousin and I would watch “The Avengers” (an English television program, brought to us on PBS, and not cartoonish superhero movies). We sang to the Partridge Family and, later, Fleetwood Mac. My cousins had our third bedroom together with each other, which was also on the main floor.
Actually, that vignette in time is probably when I stopped being tucked in. That summer (after sixth grade), there was no bedtime whatsoever. (My parents were teachers and didn’t have to think about getting up for work in the morning, although they were always up early anyway.) My aunt had a bedroom my dad had built for her on the other side of the laundry room, near the exit out in the basement. She must’ve been in that bedroom when my cousin and I were still making a ruckus on the other end of the basement. But, again, sound didn’t seem to travel in this place. I usually went to sleep right away after getting in bed. There were times I was too anticipatory of the next day. I still have that issue. I have to remember to take a couple Benadryl, and maybe melatonin to boot, to get on with sleep and be ready for that day. This brings me to the day my first child was born. The nurses wouldn’t bring me my baby…
… because of elevated heart rate or blood pressure or something. This doesn’t have anything to do with sleep, now, but being too internally excited for my own good. So they left me alone with no information in a hospital bed and with the accompaniment of a goddamned broken clock; bunch of incompetent and callous twits (the rest of their mistakes will remain unstated for now)! I only know about the elevated rates because of the nurse who did not work in the delivery rooms. I had come to tour the hospital setting a month or so ahead of time, and this nurse had said she would watch for when I checked in. I didn’t ask her to, this was amazing… I am forever grateful. Once she came into my room and explained what was going on, I immediately got my rates down just by deciding to do so. It was ridiculous staying there (in a different room) for another day or so with one employee after another waltzing in at all hours.
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First paragraph: … thankful it wasn’t early
Last paragraph: … the personnel, doctor too… twits who didn’t communicate
Sorry about other typos, such as two little words that were left out due do auto-whatchamacalllit
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Thanks for joining in Fandango. I remember Make Room For Daddy very well. I shared a room with my younger brother for awhile. Then being the only girl I got my own room. 🙂
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