Warming a Room

I see a pattern. Mid January blahs. I can tell by my recent posts. They got smaller and smaller. I seemed to run out of things to share. I couldn't hardly think of anything from my junior high years to write about. I do have one post in mind, but I have to take a picture to go with it.
As usual, as my fingers tap out these words, I can think of memories. I was back in my friend, Sherry's house. We sat in front of her fireplace. The family had gotten a board game called Careers. I guess it was a knock off of Life. Their dark brick fireplace housed a roaring fire to keep us warm. I walked down to her house and left at supper time. At home, we usually didn't have fires except on the weekends.
We spent many hours in front of both our fireplaces. At sleepovers, we stayed up late, playing 500. Diane came home for a few months between Okinawa and Thailand. She introduced me to such great movies as Dracula, and Charlie Chan on Chilly Theater. With my friends we watched The Midnight Special, shaking our heads at David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. We had to see the latest rock group. Food, a major ingredient of these late night fun sessions, included chips, pop, cookies.
In eighth grade, the new weatherman on Channel 33, also hosted schmaltzy, scary movies after the 11 o'clock news. I thought this weatherman very cute, so I watched the news to see him, as well as stayed up on Friday nights to admire him on the breaks. I even sent in a picture I drew that he displayed on TV. My parents wondered if he knew how old I was. Did he think I was an elementary student, instead of eighth grader? Still, I thrilled at having my name mentioned on TV and the note he wrote when he returned the drawing.
Cold winter afternoons and evenings into the nights, in front of our fireplaces brought giggles, gossip and gobbling food. Dancing to the newest songs, if we weren't laughing too hard. Then there was Elvira, Big Chuck and Hoolihan to bring more laughter, if the movies didn't first make us snicker. No wonder I miss my fireplace. Nothing warms a room like a wood fire shared with friends.