Skip to main content

Six Sentence Story: Address

After a long hiatus, I am again linking up to the Six Sentence Story hop, hosted by Ivy.  This week's prompt:  address.


My parents managed to provide their children with the somewhat unlikely combination of the stability of home with dreams (and reality) of adventure, which was a wonderful gift.  

While we lived in the same brick-trimmed rambler from the time I was 3 until my sophomore year of high school, several times a serious discussion arose around the possibility of a move--not just any move, mind you, but a move filled with major life-style changes and excitement.  


Photo:  Me standing in front of my childhood home, on a particularly snowy day (for our area)

One time, we pondered over purchasing the small, isolated town of Princeton, Oregon (population 5, if we bought it) and learned that the "local" high school was actually one of the nation's oldest public boarding schools, located miles away. 

Another time, my dad interviewed for (and had my mom also been a teacher, would have gotten) a teaching position on one of the islands in the Kodiak Island Archipelago.  Dinnertime discussion focused on bears and how we would have to take a boat or plane just to get to church each week. 

When I started my sophomore year in high school, we moved a mere 15 miles away, but the adventure we began was just as exciting as Princeton or Alaska would have been;  we moved into a passive-solar, underground (or at least set into the hill) home that Dad imagined and built, proving to us all that dreams do come true!

Photo:  The east side of Dad's dream house, where my parents still live.

 photo visiting2_zps6d4521f3.jpg

 photo ThankfulThought4_zps7d9599c2.jpg
Thanks for dreams and stability, all wrapped up in one childhood.

 photo signature3_zps16be6bca.jpg


Pin It

Comments

  1. That dream home of your Dad's, with solar panels and built into the hillside was definitely visionary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Passive solar has no panels, but yes, he has always been forward-thinking.

      Delete
  2. Daring dreams, for sure! I love that the family discussed the pros and cons at the dinner table. I don't think families eat together much anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  3. earth-sheltered houses! I was new in real estate when they started to become 'popular'... well, not popular in the sense that everyone wanted one, after all, this is New England!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suppose the wild West has a different character than traditional New England. :-)

      Delete
  4. No matter our dreams our real life never seems to follow them but that does not mean you are any worse off. The secret is to enjoy what you have.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your parents dream big! What a wonderfully perfect house your Dad made. He should build more! and I would live in one....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It certainly turned out well. The building of it was a process, though!

      Delete
  6. Your parents dream big! What a wonderfully perfect house your Dad made. He should build more! and I would live in one....

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love this - what great dreams and adventures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I appreciate how my parents raised me and my siblings. :-)

      Delete
  8. It is timely reading this today, we are contemplating a move. I am addicted to the idea of doing a HGTV type rehab. My daughter however has not bought into the idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I could write a lot more than 6 sentences describing what it was like making "build your dream home" dream come true. We moved in when the house was VERY unfinished. I loved the experience, but it certainly didn't follow an HGTV-type schedule. :-)

      Delete
  9. Awesome way to grow up! Teaches calculated risk taking , balance and adventure

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My dad might be retired from the classroom, but he is still teaching me.

      Delete
  10. Awesome way to grow up! Teaches calculated risk taking , balance and adventure

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your father was a visionary! Great story.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love your Father's dream home! Glad he got to have it and a great story.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this...

Ten Things of Thankful: Live from Oregon, part 2

stock photo of old computer monitor When I was 10 or 11, I remember sitting next to my dad in our living room and reading computer code to him as he entered it into an Apple computer. We would finish the exercise and he would hit enter (or was it "run"?) and wait expectantly for the green type to appear on the screen. If we were lucky, the whole conversation would occur. Most often, there would be an error either in my dictation of the code, or in the typing of the code. We would then go painstakingly back through the lines, character by character, to find and correct the error. After what seemed like hours (and might have been), we would succeed and the computer would finally run the entire program. It was magical! My dad designed and built an earth-sheltered, passive solar home decades before solar panels were commonplace. He also was on a 9-month waiting list for a Prius, when hybrids were not seen on every street.  While my dad is definitely on the cutting edge of technol...

Ten Things of Thankful: Oregon Edition, Part 3

  A western bluebird, sitting at the base of a house window, looks inside Thanks (1) to those who have sent well-wishes for my mom's recovery. Her wrist is healing up nicely. I met a friend from high school for lunch this past week. It was so nice to have a chance to visit with her for a couple of hours. She is one of those friends who it doesn't matter how much time has passed, we can pick right back up into meaningful conversations. Lunch ended all too soon, but I'm so thankful (2) for her, and I'm thankful (3) that she reminded me of the importance of reaching out to others.  Being in my parents' home this week, visiting with a long-time (I'm not saying old!) friend, and with Mother's Day tomorrow, my mind naturally reflects upon the women in my life. I'm thankful (4) for an incredible mom--a gentle woman who taught and loved and guided us (and still does.) I'm thankful (5) for grandmas who were different in their personalities but united in their...