My Old Stomping Ground

Recently I came across a web site where you could get a satellite photo of just about anywhere in the world where large masses of people reside. After a few minutes of searching the world, I popped in the address of where I grew up and volia! As I looked down “from above,” memories of my younger days came streaming into my mind. There were a lot of memories… some good and some not so good … most of it good however. I located nine areas of my neighbourhood … well… a bit more than my neighbourhood where I grew up. Within these nine areas, I could spend a month’s worth of stories blogging to you but I will refrain from doing so (whew! You say right?)

I will, however, spend a few minutes it telling you about at least one memory from each site I labelled.

A. The church I attended… When we first moved into town we joined the local Catholic church. I became an alter boy there. It was the third church in two countries where I served the priest during mass.
B. Elementary School (Grade 5)… I attended this school for one year. I don’t have too many memories of this school other than when a teacher held a boy out the third floor classroom window by his feet! I played a lot of basketball on the basketball court there. Most of my evenings and weekends were spent there "shooting hoops.”
C. My house for ten years. My parents worked hard to provide a home for us. For that, I will always be extremely grateful!
D. Elementary School (Grades 6 to 8)… I’ll never forget that hot and humid summer day when some of the boys killed a skunk at the back of the school. Unfortunately, the wind carried the stench right through the school!
E. Before the shopping plaza and parking lot were there, it was a secluded field with trails and trees. A lot of great memories there! I won’t go into details just in case my parents ever read this blog!
F. High School… Five years of making great friends, some which I still have. They didn’t have the running track back then but none-the-less, I spent a lot of time running in the fields behind the school.
G. McDonalds Hamburger joint… Opened up while I was living in the area. I was the first one to order a milkshake there. I used to eat two large hamburgers, a fry and a drink each time I was there. Nowadays… I am much too old for that!
H. Sports Park… Here, I played a lot of baseball and ice hockey. Just along the bottom edge of the park was a bowling alley… Hung out there every once in awhile.
I. Two large stores… A hardware store and a grocery store. My first bike was stolen from the hardware store. I got my head stuck in a turnstile in the grocery store… right in front of a bazillion people! The maintenance guy had to dismantle the whole thing just to release me. My mother was not impresses and neither was the store manager!

Okay… there you have it! A brief glimpse of my life as a kid. Every once in awhile I drive down in that area and relive a lot of my memories. Our experiences that we survived through in childhood make us who we are today. Sure, there were a lot of heartaches but there was also a lot of laughter as well.

I would encourage you to check out Google Earth and see where you used to live… See what memories you can pull up! I hope that most of them were good!

Cheers!