LIVING IN A COTTAGE

When I was a little girl, I wanted to live in a fairy tale cottage just like this (I still do.)  But I didn't.

Linda's ideal cottage.

Our family lived in a series of boxy concrete block horrors which were painted flamingo pink or brilliant turquoise.  This was Florida in the Fifties!  Carports.  Picture windows.  No heat, air conditioning or charm. I can still remember my little brothers and I huddled in front of the small wall heater in the bathroom while we dressed for school.  My father painted my bedroom the color I had picked out--a muted blue-green, the color of the Gulf of Mexico.  I was thrilled!  But he ran out of paint before the room was finished and he never bought any more.  For all the years we lived there I had three and a half glorious blue walls and one neon pink patch crosshatched with blue brush strokes like a very bad abstract painting..