Moments that changed my life, part 1

I have been filled with nostalgia lately.  I think it's a combo of putting the house up for sale, getting ready for Noel to go to kindergarten, and finishing up the school year with my students.  I've been thinking a lot about the way my life has been shaped and changed.  So, I have decided to start blogging about my past and see what happens.  I have creatively and uniquely names this:  "Moments that changed my life".  I know, I know, how am I not a published author yet?

Anyway. . .part 1:  Growing up in my neighborhood

Until I left for college I had the same address:  3200 Revere Street.  (Don't worry, stalkers, my parents don't live there anymore!).  I lived in a little neighborhood of about 60 houses or so called Holiday Park.  When I was in grade school I could have told you who lived in every house.  It was so much fun to grow up in that neighborhood.  Riding bikes was a daily ritual from March until October.  We knew which house had the good candy on Halloween.  And you never did anything without Mrs. Bell finding out about it.

Here are some moments that will always stand out in my mind from living in that neighborhood:

*playing in my best friends' back yards (none of our parents would let us come in and wreck their house--although I do remember sneaking in to Chiandra's house while her mom was gone & of course we got busted.)

*daring each other to walk up to the abandoned house on the corner.  So many great, scary stories passed down about that house that I'm sure were never true.  ("I heard there's a ghost who haunts the upstairs. . .")

*making up dance/ballet routines and performing them for our moms.

*riding the school bus with my friends

*camp outs that always ended up with us all inside.

*adventures to the neighborhood across the street, because it had a creek, making it exponentially cooler.

*getting picked on my the older neighborhood kids.

*wrecking my bike the day before the start of middle school.  Nothing makes a girl feel more confident than a big scab on her forehead!

*trying to drive my first car up the hill in the yard instead of the driveway.  Not a smart choice.  Not. At. All.

Mostly, I just remember that in the midst of the chaos my family was going through, I found shelter in the safety of my neighborhood.  Having siblings who were much older than me, I would have been all by myself most of the time, but thanks to living where I did, I didn't have to be.  It was simple, but so much fun.

What memories of growing up do you have that you cherish?