Childhood Memories and Bunk Beds With Stairs

Growing up as a child with two brothers and four sisters was a chaotic blast. Mom and dad, I applaud you. We all survived and somehow avoided prison. Hah. Lot's of good times, some bad times. Wanna hear about some of the hard livin' times an 11 year old boy had to endure? Don't worry...nothing too heavy. The one thing I can't ever, EVER forget, is how cramped we lived. There was no room unoccupied, ever. With seven kids to feed and a seemingly constant stream of bills, my parents did what they could to make ends meet. We lived in a modest house, nothing fancy, a little on the smallish side. Four bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and an unfinished basement. My parents had their own bedroom, my oldest sister had her own bedroom and the rest of us were shacked in the remaining 2 bedrooms.

So as you could imagine, sleeping with my two brothers in the same room was no walk in the park. Two beds in one bedroom. Three boys. Oldest brother had decided he had one bed to himself, leaving me and younger bro to fight over the remaining bed. It goes without saying that It didn't take long before a change was needed. There was no way two boys age 8 and 11 could sleep in the same bed! But it happened and for way too long (64 days to be exact).

Finally I had enough of the arrangement. I went to dad and screamed out for help. I...lost it. There was no mistaking my emotion - I needed my own bed and I needed it now(or by the weekend). So my dad, he tells me not to worry, that he and mom are looking at bunk beds in a couple days. Whoohoo! (sarcasm)

Dad had delivered on his word, What seemed like months took only 3 days. It was agonizingly difficult as the wait nearly drove me mad. Finally...it arrived. The bunk bed would save the day!

There's the bed, just to the right of this paragraph. I know what your thinking - how many trees did it take to make this bed? Answer? I don't know. Fifty? Whatever the number it was too many. Back then I wasn't complaining; I now had my own bed (top bunk!) and we had a pretty cool piece of furniture different from anything my friends or relatives. But the best part was no more crazy two-brothers-in-one-bed arrangements. Thank you but not interested!

I'll end with a few words of crackpot sage wisdom. When shopping for a bunk bed keep in mind the quality of materials is important. Don't buy cheap. The amount of abuse us boys dished out to that bunk bed is incredible. We climbed up the poles, we drop kicked each other on the top bunk, we did all kinds of damage. A leg on the stairs snapped and it was never replaced. In a scene reminiscent of the Three Stooges, the support planks for the top bed warped and eventually broke, pretty much destroying any further use for it. So we tore it apart, used it for firewood and I ended up sleeping in the unfinished basement for the next six years.

Ah...those were the good ol' days. Thankfully the bunk bed offerings today are of much better quality. To avoid anything we endured growing up, look into a bunk bed with stairs, which eliminates the falling-from-ladder type injuries.