Back to the Shack

The Hartman House. A house that quickly became a home and the occupants, a family. My residence during college. Stillwater, Oklahoma. Go Pokes! Our house on Hartman Avenue was situated directly behind Papa John’s, just down the block from Whataburger, and within walking distance of the lake. It often smelled of fries and baking dough. We had a nice sized yard that was typically only used for family cookouts and to let the dogs run. Our living room opened into what was meant to be the dining room, but housed two computer desks, a fish tank that was home to Admiral Agbar and Sucka, and a lot of guitars. The spaces were separated by “curtains” made from bed sheets, because…well, we were cool. The kitchen was small, but cozy. It had a television on top of the refrigerator and Christen would often watch “Chicago” while cooking. That kitchen is where we made our famous, family twice baked potatoes, Matt made Kirby Steaks (to die for!), and I made Matt & Caitlin the coolest birthday cake ever. There were four bedrooms and a bathroom decorated in yellow rubber duckies. That house is where we started our annual Fourth of July Family BBQ. All five roomies had family come in from out of town and we’d cook, drink, play, and then go to the firework display at Boomer Lake. It was something I looked forward to all year, and miss tremendously. We had a Halloween Costume party one year where a girl almost gave herself alcohol poisoning because she had never had a drink before and decided her first attempt would be to down a whole punch bowl of Yucca, which is basically straight alcohol. Seriously. Vodka, lemons, limes, and sugar. That’s it. I bet you can imagine why we only ever had one of those parties.

That house, and those people, were such a family to me. We even began a Hartman House Cookbook, although I have no idea where that ended up. We’d take family walks to the lake and come home for Jell-O and “air” (canned whip cream). We’d watch movies together all the time. Caitlin and I got high on Benadryl (by accident), Matt and I killed about a thousand baby spiders on the living room floor, Edwin and Matt saved me from a snake in my bedroom floor, Christen and I cooked while watching chick flicks, all the roomies made me their valentine because I was ALWAYS single…those walls held lots of memories.

We moved to another house together, but it was never quite the same as that original house. Nothing at all is quite the same as living in that house.