One of my earliest memories dates back to when I was perhaps 4 years old living in Levittown. By then, we lived in a house known as a “Levittowner” – a single storey ranch style house in the Magnolia Hill neighborhood or ‘section’ as they were called. This was a small house with about 1,000 ft2 of living space that included 3 bedrooms, one of which was smaller than the others. For me, that room was my favorite place in the house. It had nothing to do with the cool wall section that could slide away or the speckled paint on the walls. It was my favorite place because of the light that poured through the windows. I was fascinated by the way I could “see” the light’s angular profile made visible by the minute specular dust particles. As adults, we’ve all had similar instances when clouds parted and suddenly we could see rays of sunlight burst through, but as a 4 year old, I thought it was magical the way the sun shined into that little room. If I sat with my eyes closed in the patch of light on the floor, immersed in sunlight, I felt warm, calm, and safe. I was too young to understand the movement of the sun in the sky and wondered why the sun moved through the room until it no longer painted the floor. As days went by, I would check often to see if this visitor had come again.
When I was around 6, we moved from that house into another Levittowner in Goldenridge. This house was oriented differently and the light streaming into that little room was lost to me. But not forever. I met another boy in the neighborhood who became my best friend and Jimmy’s room gathered the light as mine once did! We spent many hours playing in that room.
Even though it’s been decades, I often go back to that place in my mind. It’s a memory that doesn’t fade. I can invoke the feeling of calm and safety by being that little boy again sitting in that patch of light – in a small house in Levittown.
Kevin Deeny
[Author’s note: This essay was the genesis of a book, a collection of essays entitled – A Patch of Light – Reflections from Levittown.]
https://store.bookbaby.com/bookshop/book/index.aspx?bookURL=A-Patch-of-Light
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