A Girl’s Bedroom: Three Generations Jodi Vender

WMNST 597A October 26, 2010

This essay describes and interrogates the bedroom spaces of three generations of girls in a white, middle-class family in Pennsylvania from the 1960s to 2010s. It highlights how the mother’s vision of an ideal little girl’s room is inscribed on that of the daughter, as well as the daughter’s efforts to appropriate the space and inscribe her own personality. Scene 1: 10 Reynolds St., Hughestown, PA -- 1962 The house is a small single-family home on a residential street in a working-class neighborhood of northeastern Pennsylvania’s anthracite region (Figure 1, Map 1). Both furnace and cooking stove are coal-powered, making the interior temperature challenging to regulate. The upstairs is accessed by a steep, narrow staircase with low head clearance. The staircase opens onto the “back” bedroom, which was shared by the daughters of the house. The front (parents’) bedroom is accessed directly from the back bedroom, separated by a curtain. Both bedrooms enjoy little privacy. A color photo printed in 1962 (Figure 2) depicts 13-year-old Beverly posing on her double bed, wearing a white frilly dress. The bed dominates the rather small room. The headboard has a built-in cabinet, with two doors on either end that slide toward an open middle shelf; this style appears to have been popular in working-class homes of that region/era.i At the middle of the shelf is a white radio, blocked from view in the color photo but visible in a black-and-white photo taken around the same time (Figure 3). On top of the headboard-cabinet are arranged two sets of figurines—children sitting on a bench?—a pair at either end. An arrangement of artificial pink flowers in a blue-green ceramic container is normally placed in the middle of the shelf (see Fig. 3) but has been moved to the left side in Figure 2, presumably so as not to appear as an outgrowth of Beverly’s head. The bedspread is purple and textured, possibly chenille. Figure 3 also shows two throw pillows: one with a funky tie-dye-type pattern, the other lighter colored with an indeterminate pattern. To the left of the bed is a small nightstand with one drawer and an open lower shelf; its finish appears similar to that of the headboard, suggesting that the two pieces may form a set, although the drawer-pull hardware does not match the knobs on the cabinet doors. Atop the nightstand is a small jewelry box made of dark wood, centered on a blue doily. A stack of magazines appears to occupy much of the nightstand’s lower shelf; it is impossible to discern any titles. The bedroom walls are painted a plain pink, with white baseboards. No pictures or posters are visible on the wall. To the left of the nightstand, part of a window is visible. It has pink tied-back curtains of a darker color than the wall, with a drawn white roll-shade. Beverly, the youngest daughter (sisters 4 and 8 years older), does not have particularly fond memories of the room. When asked if she had any photos of her childhood bedroom, she responded, “Why would you want that? It was stifling!” Stifling could refer to the room’s emotional atmosphere as well as the prevailing temperature. The jewelry box is one of Beverly’s prized possessions; she recalls fondly that it had a little dancer who popped up when the box’s lid was opened. Other than the jewelry box and somewhat funky throw pillows, the room shows

little personalization. Perhaps this was at least in part because the room offered little privacy (one had to pass through it to get to the other bedroom), so any “personal” artifacts of girlhood were concealed in drawers or the room’s small closet. Scene 2: 418 Greenwood Ave, Clarks Summit, PA -- 1973 Beverly, now a 24-year-old nurse and her teacher-husband Len have scraped together enough money to buy a small ranch house in a better school district (Figure 4, Map 2). Four-year-old daughter Jodi is installed in a “big-girl bed” that is three-quarter size, obtained second-hand. Figure 5 depicts Jodi showing off the table-and-chairs set that Santa somehow managed to squeeze down a nonexistent chimney. In keeping with the family’s modest financial circumstances, it is an inexpensive set, made of aluminum, plastic, and fiber board. It is clearly the 1970s: pink walls are accented by loud pink/white/orange/green flowered curtains, which clash with the red/white/blue floral pattern of the table top. A yellow Charlie Brown trash can matches nothing. Scene 3: 502 Clark Street, Clarks Green, PA -- late 1970s/1980s Bev and Len continue their upward mobility and in 1977 purchase a larger home in a nearby neighborhood (Figure 6, Map 3). The house is about 50 years old and in need of significant interior renovations. Beverly envisions the perfect little girl’s room: matching white furniture with gold accents, white eyelet bedspread/canopy/curtains, yellow-and-white-flowered wall paper, green shag rug (Figures 7-8). She splurges on expensive furniture: double canopy bed, triple dresser with mirror, highboy dresser, desk with hutch. Unfortunately, the room is too small, so the dresser is soon moved into the even tinier spare bedroom, which has also inherited Jodi’s old three-quarter bed. Even more unfortunately, tomboy Jodi fails to appreciate her mother’s efforts: she despises the white furniture, canopy, frilly bedspread and curtains, and flowered wallpaper – she wanted bunkbeds! Her short-term solution (Figure 9) is to plaster the walls with animal posters, mostly obtained from Dynamite! Magazine and her school’s Scholastic book club. She convinces her parents to dismantle the canopy and uses the bedposts as hat- and accesory-racks. She hides the “unsightly” bedspread under a menagerie of stuffed animals (which make getting into bed a challenge and making it a thoroughly wretched chore). When Jodi is 12, she is allowed to redecorate (Figures 10-14). Three walls are painted white, the fourth painted sky-blue with a huge rainbow mural. Blue curtains frame the room’s two windows, privacy maintained by bi-fold shutters on the lower halves. The triple dresser and desk remain, but the four-poster bed is dismantled in favor of a simple metal mattress frame, with no headboard. A rainbow comforter/sheet set complements the wall motif; almost all stuffed animals have migrated from the bed to alternate spaces. Two rows of milk crates offer additional storage and “shelf-space.” An allergist’s recommendation to replace her bedroom carpeting with a hard floor provides the rationale for a further renovation; Jodi chooses linoleum patterned like wicker matting. As with many old homes, closet space is extremely limited; Beverly shares Jodi’s closet. Assurances of privacy are further limited by old doors with keyhole locks (but no keys) that have been painted over repeatedly and likely wouldn’t lock even if keys were located. Jodi grows up without expectations of complete privacy, though closed doors are generally respected.

Scene 4: 103 Washington Place, State College, PA -- 2005-present Jodi moved back to State College with 2-year-old daughter Caroline in 2005, purchasing a duplex in a condominium development adjacent to a public park (Figure 15 and Map 3). For Christmas the year she turned 3, Santa brought Caroline a “big-girl bed” and complementary high-boy dresser (matching, but not a set). Her mother’s vision of the ideal kid’s room prevailed: bunk beds (twin-over-full), natural wood furniture, and bright colors (Figures 16-18). In 2009, the highboy dresser migrated to baby brother Nicholas’s room, replaced by a desk/hutch from the same collection, as the room is too small for both pieces.ii Now 7 years old, Caroline says that her favorite part of her room is the bunk bed; she especially enjoys being able to touch the ceiling from the top bunk. She pines the loss of a melon-colored comforter (see related pillow-sham in Fig. 16) that was discarded because it didn’t wash well. If she could change something about her room, she says she would paint the closets purple and blue. Her room has 2 closets, one of which is partially occupied by some of her mother’s out-of-season clothes... Conclusion History is doomed to repeat itself. Or, as Beverly likes to say, “apple” – as in “doesn’t fall far from the tree”! i Jodi’s father’s family, of similar social class and living in an adjacent town, had similar bedroom furniture at that time. ii The rationale is that the two pieces may be reunited in a child’s room at some point in the future (whether sister or brother remains to be determined; the pieces were deliberately gender-neutral even when Caroline was expected to be an only child).

Figure 1: 10 Reynolds St, Hughestown, PA Source: GoogleMaps Street View 

Map 1: Hughestown, PA Source: GoogleMaps  

Figure 2: Beverly’s room, 1962   

Figure 3: Beverly’s room,  ~1961/62   

Figure 4:  418 Greenwood Avenue, Clarks Summit, PA Source: GoogleMaps Street View 

Map 2: Clarks Summit, PA Source: GoogleMaps  

Figure 5:  Jodi’s room, December 1973  

Figure 6:  502 Clark Street, Clarks Green, PA Source: GoogleMaps StreetView 

Map 3: Clarks Green, PA Source: GoogleMaps  

Figures 7 and 8:  Jodi’s room, Winter 1978 

Figure 9:  Jodi’s room, Summer 1980 

Figures 10 and 11:  Jodi’s room, summer 1984  

Figures 12 and 13:  Jodi’s room, winter 1984  

Figure 14:  Jodi’s room, fall 1986 

Figure 15:  103 Washington Place, State College, PA  

Map 3: State College, PA Source: GoogleMaps  

Figures 16, 17, 18:  Caroline’s room,  October 2010