Singing Owl writes:
My daughter, her husband, and their toddler, Trinity Ann, are moving from Minneapolis, Minnesota to our place. It’s a long story, but the short version is that they will be loading a Ryder truck on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon we will unload it into a storage unit in our town. They will move themselves, their two cats and their BIG dog into our place. Yes, there will be issues, but this Friday Five isn’t really about that. (Prayers for jobs for them and patience for all of us are most welcome, however. yes, we will keep all of you in prayer ) This post is about locations. My husband has lived at 64 addresses in his life so far (16 with me) and he suggested the topic since we have moving trucks on our minds.
Therefore, tell us about the five favorite places you have lived in your lifetime. What did you like? What kind of place was it? Anything special happen there?
If you have lived in less than five places, you can tell us a about fantasy location.
1) Manitou Springs, Colorado. I had my very first apartment in Manitou. It was a cute 3 room section of an old victorian style house right off of main street. I didn’t even have a phone but there was a pay phone across the street at Tubby’s Turnaround. No phone, no car–much simpler times. Thank goodness I had a wonderful boyfriend (Joel) who’d drive me to the grocery store and laundry mat.
One night after work several of us gathered at the house, goofing around on the front porch and we noticed that next door there was a red light on in the window–we all burst out singing “Roxanne, you don’t have to turn on your red light. Roxanne!” Then we burst in laughter. Lots of wonderful times were had in that cute apartment in one of Colorado’s most interesting small towns.
2) Denver, Colorado. I LOVED living in Denver! I lived near the corner of Federal and Evans. It was a great location–easy to get anywhere in the city. It was a diverse area, even if it was a bit rough. One night at the laundrymat we (all of the customers) pointed out all the people that we recognized as we watched Cops since it had been taped in our area.
At one of the apartment complexes (it was a “California style–pool in the center and all the doors faced in towards the pool–think Karate Kid) I lived, Saturday mornings were shining examples of real community–a big group of us would always end up at one of our apartments eating breakfast. It wasn’t planned but someone would have their door open and the smell of eggs and chile verde, pancakes, or sausage would be wafting out their door–this was the invitation to come on in.
It’s easy to romanticize our lives there but they weren’t very romantic. My next door neighbor was a drug dealer and very nice man who made sure that I was protected and kept away from any drugs, several of the tenets had some major drug issues that had or were in the process of ruining their lives, those of us who had jobs weren’t making much money at all but we shared what we had and formed a tight-knit group of friends who took care of each other.
3) Manhattan, Kansas. I spent 2 years in Manhattan, my sophomore and junior years of high school. I worked as a waitress at Country Kitchen, spent my weekend evening cruising Aggieville with my friends. I caused my mother a lot of worry and frustration those years but I think she’s forgiven me by now. (Hi Mom! I love you!)
4) Kansas City, Missouri. When we first moved to Kansas City we lived in an “interesting” area. During our first week we called for pizza one night and was informed that no one delivered to that area after dark. Lots of interesting characters and experiences there.
5) Americus, Kansas. In many ways, Americus feels like the place I grew up. I lived there with my mom from 3rd to 8th grade–very pivotal years. Now a friend of mine from seminary is the pastor of the church I attended there. I look forward to visiting one Sunday and listening to her preach. My grandparents owned the cafe there and I waited tables on my roller skates.
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