The House That Built Me

When I was in 8 years old my parents purchased a brand new home. Three bedrooms, 2.5 baths, two car garage, and a large backyard. This would be the home that I grew up in.

The neighborhood had a park, basketball court and two swimming pools. I remember my brother and I would spend all day at the pools during the summer. Sometimes we would go to park, which was only a few blocks from our house. And whenever we heard my dad whistle for us we knew we needed to get home fast. 

The neighborhood was full of kids. And because of this we would spend most of our time outside. We rode our bikes every where. Sometimes we would ride up to the 7-Eleven corner store and get a drink and some candy. Our parents needed us, they would drive around looking for us at the park, basketball court, or pool. If they couldn't find us, they kept driving around to see which house had all of the bikes in the yard because that is where they would find us. 

Some weekends we would have block parties where everyone brought something to eat and the adults would just hang out and talk and us kids would run up and down the street playing and going from one friends house to the next. 

Another thing the kids would do is walk to the local roller rink on Saturday morning at 11am and skate all afternoon. At 4pm when the rink closed our parents would come pick us up. Sometimes we would be right back up there at 6pm and skate till midnight. 

As I got older I would babysit for a family that lived down the street. I'm still close to this family today. Their three girls are like younger siblings to me. 

I can say growing up in the 80's was absolutely glorious! 

Recently one of the girls drove to our old neighborhood. She had her kids in the car and was showing them where she grew up. She snapped a picture of my old house and sent it to me. 

The aesthetics has changed but the bones of the house have not. I can still picture in my mind the floor plan and where everything was. 

The window on the left over the garage was my bedroom and the other window was my brothers room. The window that is set back a little bit, and is open by the way, was my parents bathroom. I can picture my dad standing at the sink and shaving. Right under that window was our front door with the sidelight window that was in front of the staircase. Our dog used to lay on the third step because the sun would shine in on that step from the window and make it warm. There was a courtyard just before the front door that my parents worked so hard in. It was really beautiful with all the rose bushes and gardenia bushes and the outdoor furniture they would sit in to unwind from the day. 

The picture on the left is about a year after my parents purchased the house in 1977 and the picture on the right is how it currently looks.

 Gone are my parents cars tucked into the garage. My dads was a blue Corvair and my mothers was a brown Toyota Corolla. Gone is the plank of wood my dad had routed our street address into and hung it over the top left of the garage doors. Gone are the stuco walls that have been replaced with fences and gates. Gone is the light brown paint and dark brown trim now placed with cream paint and brownish/reddish trim. 

While we no longer live there the memories have and will last a lifetime.  

This was the house that built me.