A house does not make a home the people do

Home is where the heart is, not an address. It has taken me almost
A lifetime to realize what the word "home" meant. For most
People, home is where you grew up as a child. For my family, it was very
Different, we traveled due to my father's employment. As far as I
Can remember, there are only a few buildings that I lived in as a
Child that I actually remember. Mostly it was a memory in the house,
Not the house it's self. There are only a few homes, I remember for
Various reasons, like counting 101 steps to the front door. That was
Hard work. I remember that house, because it was in that house, my
Mother brought home a baby sister for me eight years my junior.
There was another house, I distinctly remember because the doors had
Skeleton key locks. It was there I wanted a pony for my birthday, I
Was only seven. Of course, it was impossible to fulfill that dream of
A little girl but my father tried. He rented a pony for my birthday.
It was in that house I thought my father made coins fly through the
Air.  Sitting on the kitchen table there was a pink plastic
Sugar bowl. Daddy would say, close your eyes, then he would lift the
Lid, and inside there would be a nickel. Daddy was quite clever, he would yell
To my mother," remember that nickel in the bathroom"? "Did you see
it fly by you"? "Because here it is"! I just knew my daddy could do magic. I
still remember that little pink plastic sugar bowl. I also
had the measles in that house. In those days if you had the measles,
you were kept in the dark for weeks to protect your eyes. Daddy
boarded up all my bedroom windows. It was there, I remember
storybooks that were read to me. The bathroom had a skeleton key
lock, and one window. Somehow my mother had lost her little manicure
kit. Mama was raising a holler, she just knew we had it. Daddy
said," if I find that manicure kit in your apron pocket I'm going to
give you a spanking". I was seven, that was so funny to me, as I
knew he was poken’ fun with momma. So daddy chased her, and caught
her, though she ran. Sure enough, there inside her apron pocket was
that little red manicure kit.
I remember daddy holding mama as they both struggled to get her manicure kit
out of that apron pocket. They were laughing, he did say he was going to spank
her. They were laughing, all I remember, was my daddy ended up locked in the
bathroom and mama had the only skeleton key to open the door. In fun, daddy
would say "Sweetie, go get the key from your mama". She had the key in her
apron pocket. I could not get it. But I watched, as the two of them played.
Now mama was a little nervous about letting daddy out of the bathroom by this
time. So she went outside to get the garden hose then she put it through that
rear bathroom window. She turned on the water hose flooding the bathroom
with my father inside. He was soaked, everyone was laughing Mom was much younger
than, as she would never do that kind of thing today. Daddy, was soaking wet,
he was not laughing by now and was still trying to get me to get the
key to let him out. Oh how she patted that pocket like the evil stepmother in
Cinderella, when Cinderella was locked up, To this day I am not sure how my father
got out of that bathroom. But he did, and all was well.