Memories
Moving can move you in so many different ways, as I get ready to move out of the house I purchased with my sister to my dad’s house I reminisce on my first home.
When I was younger I lived in West Park, on Laverne Ave, near Gunning Rec Center. I think these times are the best of my childhood. I was home-schooled and usually could get my work done in four or five hours which left me a lot of time to draw, read and go outside and play.
We would come up with all kind of make-believe games! In the summer we would say our play-set was a magic garden shop, and would dig up baby trees, weeds and ivy from our backyard, put them into Tupperware, flower pots and other vessels that we found around our house. All the plants had names; I remember fondly that I called one of the trees Gandalf, as I was reading the Lord of the Rings series at the time.
Another game we played with the neighbors’ grand-kids; we would all be different species with magical powers. We would find sticks that would become swords and wands, take weeds and braid it to go in our hair, build forts outside that represented the different lands we were from. We loved it! We would go on adventures together and when the grand-kids left, it was like we hit pause, only to pick right back up again when they came to visit again.
We were ridiculously imaginative and rarely watched television, the internet was really just beginning and video games were something you played at night when there was nothing else to do. TV time was reserved for Saturday morning cartoons and occasionally my sister and I would wake up at 6am to watch Pokemon before mom awoke and school started. Our night time television was watching our Mom & Dad play Final Fantasy or help heal Dad’s paladin, Lomilgaron in Dark Age of Camelot.
My Mom was a swim coach and we had practices at night and in the summer early mornings. We would go to swim meets almost every weekend, where we hung out with our friends, obviously competed but always had a blast! We would draw on each other’s backs with sharpies, “eat my bubbles” and “go insert name”, Mom would write on our hands, our event number, heat and lane, so we wouldn’t be late. During this time I learned so many important life skills that I still carry today: always arrive early, YOU are responsible for yourself and I learned about respect and how adults who can be hard on you (like a coach or a parent), most likely do so because they love/care about you and want you to succeed.
A simpler time that I still remember so clearly; it is hard to think that it was 20+ years ago.
Kind of a long post but since I am moving, memories keep bubbling up. Thanks for reading!