Remembering Home

I was recently driving along on the Beltway when I had a sudden urge to drive by my former childhood home. Although the house is in Suitland -- not that far away from Greenbelt, where I live now -- I hadn't been back to see it since it was sold in the late 90s.

I exited the Beltway and the memories came flooding back as I drove the winding road to my old house.

I'm glad no one was around as I drove up because I must have looked like the paparazzi when I stopped my car and started snapping pictures on my cell phone to send to my family.

The house still looked pretty much the same. The only difference being the big tree that used to be in the front yard is gone now.

I remember we put Christmas lights in that tree which we never took down. When it wasn't Christmas, we just didn't turn them on. Then, when the holiday season approached, the lights were already up, so we just plugged them in. We even sold the house with those Christmas lights still in that tree. Such fond memories in that house. 

The year was 1990. I was 12 years old. At the time, six of us lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. My aunt had been offered a job opportunity in Maryland -- a much better environment to raise children in -- so off to Maryland we moved.

We felt like the Jeffersons, moving from a crappy one-bedroom apartment in a not-so-great part of Brooklyn to a five-bedroom Maryland house. My two cousins and I each had our own bedroom! Our own beds! A television in each bedroom! A backyard -- with grass! We thought we were so big time.

I have a lot of fond memories of my years growing up in that Maryland house.

• We ordered delivery pizza for the first time to this house. They never used to deliver pizza to our apartment in Brooklyn.
• My cousin and I used to have to mow the lawn at this house. It was awful. I vowed that when I became an adult, I would never mow a lawn ever again. And I never have.
• I fell down the stairs at this house, more than once.
• I remember when my cousin stained the carpeting on the stairs and tried to clean it up using bleach. She got into so much trouble for that.
• We were able to have cook-outs in our very own backyard.
• At this house, we were finally able to ride our bikes around the neighborhood.
• My high school boyfriend picked me up for my senior prom from this house.
• One of our neighbors crashed into the first car I ever purchased, in front of this house. The car wasn't even a month old, hadn't even made my first payment on it. Sigh. 

This house will always have a special place in my heart.

What do you remember about your childhood home?

Peace and love.
Nicole