Remember When

My sister tagged me the other day, so here goes...

10 years ago... Lets see, it was 1997. I was a stay at home mom with two kids living in Tampa, FL. We had a cute little house in a cute little neighborhood. Actually the neighborhood I lived in was featured in a movie. Anyone remember the movie "Edward Scissor hands"?
No, the big castle at the end of the street is not actually in the neighborhood. The castle is actually in Jacksonville (I think). The houses aren't really those bright colors, they were painted like that for the movie. I lived in the newer part of the subdivision that was built after the movie was made.
My friend and I used to take walks and one day she told me about these houses being in a movie. I had already seen the movie but we rented it one night and watched it together. We laughed and chattered as we saw the familiar streets we took evening walks on with our kids.

That November we put our house up for sale and moved back to Indiana. I got my old job back as a dispatcher and felt mounds of guilt as I left the kids to go back to work. My shift didn't start until 10 pm so I still got to tuck the boys into bed.

20 years ago... Switching gears. I had spent the majority of my school years in a small Christian school. My sophomore year I transferred to a BIG public high school. I was terrified, yet filled with excitement. I was the proverbial fish out of water. Shy and awkward I walked to class every day, my heart pounding out of my chest. This is the first time I remember standing at a cross road. I could either let fear grip me so tight that I couldn't move. Or I could grab hold of my fear and use it to propel me forward.
I made it a point to walk down the halls with my head up and look people in the eye. Really, I don't know how I made it to class because my legs were jello and my heart was pumping so fast I should have passed out.
Over a two year span I made some friends and was really starting to feel comfortable in such big surroundings. Looking forward to my senior year... but then we moved to Indiana. I went from a graduating class of 450, to only 89 students in my senior class.
If I only had to words to describe my years in high school... "Culture Shock"

30 years ago... Wow, I really have to think about this. Hummmm... We had just moved from Miami FL to Tallahassee. I started 1st grade at the small Christian school. We lived at 801 Laurel St. My brother and I used to find oyster shells, paint them with water colors and sell them for a quarter to the older couple that lived down the street... why they bought them?? I have no idea. Why my mom let us?? I have no idea. I would flip if one of my kids wanted to sell some stupid painted rock to the neighbor... We took our new found riches and walked to the local convenience store, SING. We filled our pockets with pop rocks, Archie comics, rock candy, dip sticks, Bubblicious, slurpies... well, we didn't put the slurpies in our pockets...
I remember our dog Copper having puppies and then getting hit by a car. I learned to ride a bike without training wheels on this street. My brothers and I built a huge fort in our back yard made out of refrigerator boxes.
Mostly I remember the fragrant fall breeze, clear blue sky, Rosy red cheeks cool to the touch, the beginnings of a runny nose, running up the grassy drive to our house after playing outside, hearing my brother's stereo blasting the Little River Band's "Reminiscing". Every time I hear this song, especially the first few beats of the song, I am transported back in time to a carefree little girl playing in her front yard.
I tag.... Who wants to take a stroll down memory lane with me? Common! You know you want to.