Five Places I Have Lived

Geez, it takes a meme to get me off my fat ass and writing again.  BORING.

My buddy Meg at Get In, Hang On posted a meme that I thought was interesting, so I tagged myself (per her instructions).

The fine print:

Name 5 places you’ve lived. Be as specific or generic as you like.
List 5 memories associated with each of those places.
Tag 5 others.

Like Meg, I’m not going to tag anyone. Tag yourself and let me know if you do it.

I’m a bullet kind of gal, so here’s my list. These are the first five places I lived.

Fort Riley, Kansas (age 2 (second home, but the first home I remember))

– Duplex house (the family next door had 9 kids, we had 6 – can you imagine?!)
– Kid next door stealing the streamers from my tricycle handles
– Helicopters landing and taking off
– My dad coming home from work and sitting in the big green recliner
– The last family photo before my dad left for Vietnam (I’m the cute one in the blue dress)

Last Family Photo

Alexandria, Virginia (age 3-18)

– Playing the piano and imagining someone kidnapping me and forcing me to play for an audience (obviously I have issues)
– Playing Kick The Can, Ghost in the Graveyard, Hide With Them with zillions of neighborhood kids and no supervision
– Learning to ride a bicycle, cutting up my knees on the driveway next door
– Playing by the river, making forts, sliding down the cliffs to the water on our butts (again, with no supervision)
– Learning to drive a car (um, no, not legally)

Blacksburg, Virginia (age 18-23 (college))

– Playing backgammon at Top of the Stairs
– Playing darts at Ton 80
– Tubing on the New River
– My first apartment
– My first car

Madrid, Spain (age 20 (study abroad))

– Afternoon siestas
– Tapas and horchata
– Partying until 5am (the bars never close, or if they did, we never noticed)
– Traveling south to Malaga/Calpe, and north to Santander with friends
– Bullfighting – I found it both intriguing and disturbing

West New York, New Jersey (age 22 (internship at Citicorp during grad school))

– The “A Great Place to Live and Shop” sign at the town limits
– The commute to work - Bergenline Avenue bus/Lincoln Tunnel/Port Authority/E Train to Midtown Manhattan
– Hauling laundry 5 blocks uphill to the Laundromat
– Putting “No Radio” signs on my car windows (and having no radio)
– Hocker Pschorr Weiss Beers at The Brass Rail in Hoboken (Did we actually steal a parking meter? Nah. That would be illegal.)

Aspen Hill, Maryland (age 24 (first apartment out of college))

– Wondering if I would ever find a job
– Having to turn left onto Georgia Avenue every morning during rush hour with no traffic light
– Commuting 25 miles each way to Reston, Virginia from May – December while they were widening the Beltway (yes, I finally found a job, just not in an ideal location)
– The squeaky butt sound of the fat guy upstairs taking a bath
– A burglar in my apartment

July 20, 2008 | Filed Under Fun Stuff 

Comments

5 Responses to “Five Places I Have Lived”

  1. Meg on July 20th, 2008 10:28 am

    Kick the can - we played that all summer long growing up. Always at dusk and in the dark. Hadn’t thought of that.

    Thanks for playing!

  2. Stephanie on July 21st, 2008 12:26 am

    Hey! Your blacksburg post and mine could almost be identical! Well, except that it was Ladies lockup and 10 cent beers on the Balcony (that had been Top of the Stairs, then changed to The Balcony for a couple of years and then went back to being Top of the Stairs before I left…)

    What apt complex did you live in…I was in Foxridge…Jeff was in Terrace View.

    Will have to do this one soon…

  3. Not June Cleaver on July 21st, 2008 8:24 am

    They had 10 cent beers on Tuesdays when I was there. Ladies Lockup too. The guys would be lined up around the corner to get in.

    I lived in Sturbridge Square next to Food Lion (shared with 2 others), then Draper’s Meadow (a.k.a. Draper’s Ghetto (my own place)), then a duplex on Montgomery Street with a roommate.

    You guys lived in the big places. They didn’t appeal to me.

  4. eman (pronounced A-mon) on August 11th, 2008 2:09 pm

    1963 - 1982 Alexandria VA
    1982 - 1985 Virginia Department of Corrections
    1985 - 1991 Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house . . .
    1991 - 1994 Milwaukee WI
    1995 - 2001 Spingfield VA
    2001 - 2005 Homeless
    2006 - present Springfield VA

  5. Not June Cleaver on August 11th, 2008 2:19 pm

    Are you sure 1982 - 1985 wasn’t George Mason University? Or was that 1981 - 1991?

    Where will you be living in 2012?

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