An Introduction to the Houses
Sometimes when I am driving familiar routes in town, I wonder about the houses and the memories those houses hold. There is one house in particular that I drive by almost daily. When I first started teaching (twenty-six years ago), the couple that owned the house would host fish fries every spring to bring together the faculty and administration from the school where I worked. I think I went to two or three, and they were always fun.
The couple no longer lives in that house, but driving by it has caused me to think about the memories associated with houses we have lived in throughout the years. One of the writer’s notebooks activities I have done with students in the past is about drawing house plans of childhood homes in order to help us activate memories. For my high school students, this may not have been as difficult a task as it would be for someone my age, but I decided to go ahead and do it for myself.
How To Begin
At first the task was quite daunting because the first house I remember would be when I was five years old. Trying to sort out all those memories and organize them into one post or essay just wasn’t working for me. So one morning while writing my daily morning pages, I came up with another idea. Rather than try to write about one house and all of the memories, I would write this introduction and outline the places and houses I have lived in over the years. Beginning with childhood and the ones I can remember. From there I will pull out the most prominent memories and share those – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Writing this series will at times require blatant honesty and vulnerability, but looking back now as an adult and understanding what was going on in the world at the time will help me process it all (I think). It is an idea. Hopefully, it will become a cohesive series of essays/posts.
The Early Years – Before My Memory
So, to begin. A chronicle of where we lived prior to my first memory. Having Dad’s service records as well as questioning my sister helped me to pinpoint dates. I did the best I could to accurately create the timeline.
Most of the information that follows comes from my Dad’s service records:
20 January 1959 to July 1962: Dad and family stationed in Germany. A sister and I were born during this time. We are the two youngest.
July1962 – Feb 1964: Fort Hood, Killeen, TX: Dad’s records show he was stationed at Fort Hood during this time. (A side note: He slept on bleachers in Florida waiting to see if he was to be deployed to invade Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis – Oct 16, 1962 to October 28, 1962). I was less than a year old at this time.
24 Feb 1964 -16 Feb 1967: Stationed in Germany.
16 Feb 1967: En route to CONUS (Continental United States)
7 March 1967 to 20 Sept 1967: Stationed with Platoon S at Fort Hood, TX
Grand Junction, CO House
1967: Moved to Grand Junction. Dad in Viet Nam from 6 Oct 1967 to 20 Sep 1968 (records show en route to CONUS 28 Sep 1968). This is the house where my memories begin.
One of my questions about this house was whether my Mom’s name would have been on the deed. During this time period, women did not have the same rights so I wondered about that. When I researched, the records show Belford house warranty deed and deed of trust to both John & Shirley Quick: 12/8/1967. My thought is that because he was going to war, they probably made sure her name was on the deed.
The Rest of the Houses and Places
What follows here are the places and times I remember and/or have diary/journal entries that support the timeline.
Fall of 1968, moved to a house on Highway 64 in Conway, AR. Attended rest of 1st grade in Conway and stayed through 4th grade.
August 1972 moved back to the same Grand Junction, CO house. Lived there during 5th and 6th grade. During 5th grade, back and forth trips to California. Several notes in my diary about Dad and Mom. Tumultuous time for them as Dad suffered from PTSD.
Sometime in 1975, moved to the farm in Hunt, AR. We lived in a single-wide mobile home while Dad continued to build the house at the farm.
Fall 1978 moved to a house in Fort Smith, AR and lived there until the summer of 1979.
Summer of 79 – after spending part of the summer in Colorado, Mom and I went to California and I graduated high school there in 1980. We lived with my aunt and next door to my grandmother.
Houses of Childhood
I have already written a couple of posts from memories at the house on Belford Avenue in Grand Junction, CO. One dealing with PTSD and trying to understand it from a child’s perspective, and another about a song “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine” from a time when Dad left to go back to Arkansas. Reading through journals and diaries helps me organize the timeline, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is the memories that stick with us no matter how much time goes by.
These houses of my childhood, the one on Belford Avenue in Grand Junction, the one in Conway, AR, and the one in Hunt, Arkansas all hold memories of their own. If those walls could talk, boy would I go back and ask them a lot of questions. Is it just that I’m getting older and want to remember and sort it all out? Or is it wanting to gain an understanding of how and why things were the way they were. Was it an unhappy childhood? I would say no. Was it difficult at times? I would say yes. Was it normal? I don’t know. Maybe normal for families of service members. We moved a lot. My own children have basically lived in the same town for most of their lives. A difference, but better? I don’t really know.
Why?
Anyway, it’s just an interesting idea for me to revisit some of the memories those houses hold. I’m not looking back in order to right wrongs or because of bitterness. There was a lot going on in the world as well as in our home during those times. I just want to remember and say, “Oh, yes, that explains a lot.”
I recently read an essay by Veda Boyd Jones entitled “Write Your Life”. At a point when I was doubting my commitment to writing in general, the words in her essay encouraged me to keep going, to keep writing, and to share the memories I (and the houses) carry.
This line from Veda’s essay hit home for me as she wrote about her sons: “My sons have no idea who I was when I was a teenager or a young single gal working for a living or a newlywed.”
This made me think the same thing about my girls. How much of my childhood and teenage memories have I shared with them? How much of my young adulthood do they know about?
And this quote from Veda’s essay: “I want them to know that what they are experiencing now is not something new. Surroundings change, tech changes, but emotions and life’s ups and downs are similar through decades. And we all deal with change—always.”
Finally
So really, I am writing this series for me, to reminisce and to let the girls (and others) know some things that they may not know about me. Not to be stuck in the past, but just to remember. I wish I had more details of what my Mom and Dad knew and experienced. The girls may not think about these things now, but someday maybe having something to read that I left them will offer encouragement and hope. I have a very full and amazing life right now. Remembering the past does not make one stuck in the past.
Please share any memories you have of your childhood homes. I would love to know about them.
Check back soon for more in this series.
Thanks for sharing! I love reading these.
You are very welcome! I am so glad! Thank you.