Weekend photo essay Part 3/ plus a little more.

This is the first house we lived in when we moved to Richmond. I think I was three when we made that move. I have good memories of this house and neighborhood. I attended my first birthday party in that neighborhood. I had friends, I had a tricycle and a wagon and my dad had moved my swingset along with us, so I had a swingset in the back yard. I remember going to one neighbor's house and picking her rhubarb and dipping it in sugar and eating it.
I've always remembered the driveway of this house as being really steep because one time I was pushing my wagon down the driveway and it went so fast it got away from me and I fell down and skinned my knees. Now I see it is nearly flat. I must have just been a fast runner. In the house next door on the right there lived a little old lady. I was very afraid of her because she didn't like us to get on her grass. Every holiday, however, she would buy us special little gifts. In the back yard there was a big patch of mint and a trellis with either morning glories or clematis on it. I really liked those. We lived here while Bobby was in high school. We moved shortly after I started first grade. While in the house I attended Charles School and I remember I had one good friend named Malia, down the street, and a friend at school named Julie Neufer.
This is the second house we lived in. 4016 National Road West. My bedroom was on the upper right with the short window. My bed was on the side of that room under that window. I think we moved here after Bobby graduated from HS, which makes sense if I was in first grade. At that time there was a lot of open land behind the house which had an old, decepit barn to play in - probably horribly dangerous - and a little pond where I would go catch tadpoles.
the house was white in those days and I think the front yard was bigger. They must have widened the road and taken some of the yard. This was a great house in a lot of ways, the land, a basement, and next door to one of those old-fashioned one story hotels with a big parking lot to ride my bike in! I attended Rose Hamilton School while we lived here. I had a friend named Kim Willis and a friend named Rhonda. We also had friends in the neighborhood we could get to by going back behind the property. They had a big German Shepherd they kept chained up, named "Lady" and I was terrified of her. Chris has said he remembers the dog knocking me down and standing on my back. I don't remember it, but no wonder I am afraid of and don't like most dogs! We stayed here until the end of third grade and moved that summer, I think. Nope, now I remember we moved during third gradebecause Mrs. Slick was my teacher at this school and in the next school I had my first male teacher.
This is a shot from the parking lot of the hotel. The upper left window was the other window in my room. There used to be a big tree on this side of the house. lilac bushes and those bushes that grow little "bouquets" of tiny white flowers. I would pick those bouquets and use them to pretend Barbie was getting married. Bobby left for his mission to Canada and Alaska while we lived in this house.

This is the last house we lived in in Richmond, We moved while Bobby was on his mission. I was afraid he wouldn't be able to find us when he got back if we moved! Dad finally reassured me that we would go pick him up from the airport so it would be okay. This house is a double, it even had two kitchens, but we lived in the whole thing. This is the first place I remember having migraine headaches. The episode of "Half-Wit" called "Headaches" took place in this house. I remember Dad making a big garden in the backyard of this house. I would go out and pick a turnip and hardly wipe the dirt off and just eat it straight from the garden! I had best friends next door named Tincey and Lindy Barnett. I also had a friend named Phyllis who lived a couple of blocks down the street and a friend named Louise. I went to Baxter School while we lived here for fourth grade... hmmm it seems like I should have lived here longer than one grade. Maybe we moved in third grade. You know, I bet we did because I started third grade when I was seven and turned eight that October and Bobby baptized me when he came home from his mission. Bobby and Karen lived in this house for a while after we left, until he joined the Marines, I think. They worked hard on cleaning it up and making it nice. This is the first house I remember realizing that if I was going to live in a clean house I was going to have to be the one to do it. That is when I started taking the role of caretaker/ cleaner a lot in the family. Mom and Dad bought this house, instead of renting. It turned out to be bad deal, because they could never sell it after we moved. I think they ended up selling it to a guy for $1 and he would take over the payments. I think my dad still feels bad about that. Ann - you will love this. This house is on E street. 101 NW E street. It took me a long time before I figured out that the E didn't stand for East, but was actually the name of the street.


Work was less frantic today. A lot of agencies and offices had the day off for a three day holiday. Also the phones were slow. I was in a talkative mood with my coworkers so it was a good day for it to be slow. After work I went out to the Wal-Mart hot dog stand, talked to the students and Ms. Kvale and had a doggy for dinner. Michael had a Bike Project meeting afterward, so he rode there and I came home and started my usual weeding. When he got home he sat out and talked to me for a while and played with fireworks a little bit. It finally got too buggy and I am too itchy with poison ivy already so we came in! I have three different types of itch cream so I can probably triple up without overdosing on one single medicine or killing too many brain cells. I am sure this is from the day I was pruning trees and pulling down the parasitic vines. I know better. I know those woods are FULL of poison ivy, but I was too lazy to come in a dress appropriately for protection. I am paying!

For the Richmond pictures, I decided to not do the day in chronological order. I ended up driving back and forth across town a couple of different times. I may even do Richmond in more than one installment. Tonight I am starting with houses we lived in.