![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Where have you lived meme
Feb. 9th, 2005 11:15 pmStolen from friends, commentary added:
Think about what cities or towns you've lived in (not just visited) in your life, and post them in your journal:
The Dalles, Oregon (4 houses over two time periods) - Born there, and somehow kept coming back. My great grandparents were the center of the universe for my mother's side of the family. Even when we weren't living there it seems like most of my early childhood memories revolve around that little gray house on 7th Avenue. There was an enormous maple tree in the front yard that we never managed to climb. The grass was green and perfect in the front, the back and the one side. My great grandfather clipped it three times a week with a hand-push mower because he couldn't abide the noise of machine-driven ones. Despite the cool greeness of that lawn, we kids loved the west side of the house best. The road curved around a triangle of land that technically didn't belong to Grampa, so he ignored it. As a consequence, it was a tiny section of Eastern Oregon praire - rough granite rocks and wildflowers. You could jump from rock to rock all the way down the length of it if you were brave enough to make the big leap. A lot of skinned knees were treated due to the effort. The Dalles was Christmas Eves and summer barbecues. I lived there through my junior high years as well as the baby ones.
North Bend, Oregon (1 house) - My baby brother was born there when I was two. We didn't live there very long, but my grandmother moved back there when she remarried. I remember the hummingbirds that were so brave they would dip into the feeder as you were carrying it across the porch after refilling.
Hood River, Oregon (3 houses) - This is where I started school. My father's side of the family lived there, and his mother was the ruling matriarch. She made beautiful quilts but couldn't cook a lick. Having to eat dinner at Gramma's was a form of cruel and inhuman punishment. My step-grandfather was a taciturn, unapproachable man when I was a child, but when I was a teen we became very attached to each other - he just didn't enjoy small children, and there were dozens of us.
Portland, Oregon (A house the first time, an apartment the second) - Third through fifth grades, and then high school and the first two years of college. I didn't appreciate it nearly enough while I was there. My parents broke up for the last time and there was a lot of growing up done. Many good memories, many sad.
Eugene, Oregon (A dorm, an apartment, a shack, and a boarding house) - College. Lots of hippies, lots of greenies. You get to believing that all people think like you. Eugene was an hour's drive from the ocean in one direction, an hour's drive from the mountains in the other, and another hour past that was desert. Lots of biking, lots of rain. I loved Eugene.
Salinas, California (The house of a friend's parents) - One glorious summer. We worked too much and didn't listen to enough jazz, but isn't that every summer vacation? I came home with almost no money but a great wardrobe from working in the clothing store.
Anchorage, Alaska (3 apartments and a house the first time, 3 houses the second time) - One year after college, then another 9 almost a decade later. This was the first place we landed after John and I got married. It was beautiful, and yet almost impossible. We moved four times in 13 months, trying to find someplace to live. When we came back, though, it was better. This is where I homeschooled my kids, and where I made friends with Annie, and where I helped her get through dying. This is where my first marriage broke up and my second began. This was Erin ice skating and Amy in the backpack, and horses and dogsled teams and hiking in the woods. This was watermelon berries in the late summer and the pungency of ripened cranberries in the fall, and a ski hill that was two blocks away.
Fairbanks, Alaska (An apartment and 2 houses) - In the intervening years between the first time we lived in Anchorage and the last, there was Fairbanks. It was the first place I ever really considered my home. The best friends I had ever had in my life were in Fairbanks. We learned to canoe and we learned to telemark ski, and our babies were born there. I still miss it, more than anyplace else.
Rocky River, Ohio (An apartment for 6 whole weeks, then our house) - What a switch, eh? Ohio was an opportunity that came unexpectedly. Ohio has brought deep friendships and law school and a marriage that is based on honesty and bliss. Ohio is lovelier than I thought possible, and more fun that I believed the midwest could be. Rocky River is a great little community, and I love my little house.
Think about what cities or towns you've lived in (not just visited) in your life, and post them in your journal:
The Dalles, Oregon (4 houses over two time periods) - Born there, and somehow kept coming back. My great grandparents were the center of the universe for my mother's side of the family. Even when we weren't living there it seems like most of my early childhood memories revolve around that little gray house on 7th Avenue. There was an enormous maple tree in the front yard that we never managed to climb. The grass was green and perfect in the front, the back and the one side. My great grandfather clipped it three times a week with a hand-push mower because he couldn't abide the noise of machine-driven ones. Despite the cool greeness of that lawn, we kids loved the west side of the house best. The road curved around a triangle of land that technically didn't belong to Grampa, so he ignored it. As a consequence, it was a tiny section of Eastern Oregon praire - rough granite rocks and wildflowers. You could jump from rock to rock all the way down the length of it if you were brave enough to make the big leap. A lot of skinned knees were treated due to the effort. The Dalles was Christmas Eves and summer barbecues. I lived there through my junior high years as well as the baby ones.
North Bend, Oregon (1 house) - My baby brother was born there when I was two. We didn't live there very long, but my grandmother moved back there when she remarried. I remember the hummingbirds that were so brave they would dip into the feeder as you were carrying it across the porch after refilling.
Hood River, Oregon (3 houses) - This is where I started school. My father's side of the family lived there, and his mother was the ruling matriarch. She made beautiful quilts but couldn't cook a lick. Having to eat dinner at Gramma's was a form of cruel and inhuman punishment. My step-grandfather was a taciturn, unapproachable man when I was a child, but when I was a teen we became very attached to each other - he just didn't enjoy small children, and there were dozens of us.
Portland, Oregon (A house the first time, an apartment the second) - Third through fifth grades, and then high school and the first two years of college. I didn't appreciate it nearly enough while I was there. My parents broke up for the last time and there was a lot of growing up done. Many good memories, many sad.
Eugene, Oregon (A dorm, an apartment, a shack, and a boarding house) - College. Lots of hippies, lots of greenies. You get to believing that all people think like you. Eugene was an hour's drive from the ocean in one direction, an hour's drive from the mountains in the other, and another hour past that was desert. Lots of biking, lots of rain. I loved Eugene.
Salinas, California (The house of a friend's parents) - One glorious summer. We worked too much and didn't listen to enough jazz, but isn't that every summer vacation? I came home with almost no money but a great wardrobe from working in the clothing store.
Anchorage, Alaska (3 apartments and a house the first time, 3 houses the second time) - One year after college, then another 9 almost a decade later. This was the first place we landed after John and I got married. It was beautiful, and yet almost impossible. We moved four times in 13 months, trying to find someplace to live. When we came back, though, it was better. This is where I homeschooled my kids, and where I made friends with Annie, and where I helped her get through dying. This is where my first marriage broke up and my second began. This was Erin ice skating and Amy in the backpack, and horses and dogsled teams and hiking in the woods. This was watermelon berries in the late summer and the pungency of ripened cranberries in the fall, and a ski hill that was two blocks away.
Fairbanks, Alaska (An apartment and 2 houses) - In the intervening years between the first time we lived in Anchorage and the last, there was Fairbanks. It was the first place I ever really considered my home. The best friends I had ever had in my life were in Fairbanks. We learned to canoe and we learned to telemark ski, and our babies were born there. I still miss it, more than anyplace else.
Rocky River, Ohio (An apartment for 6 whole weeks, then our house) - What a switch, eh? Ohio was an opportunity that came unexpectedly. Ohio has brought deep friendships and law school and a marriage that is based on honesty and bliss. Ohio is lovelier than I thought possible, and more fun that I believed the midwest could be. Rocky River is a great little community, and I love my little house.
