Parade of Homes

Heading to Canada for my annual summer break is more than an opportunity for me to connect with family and friends but also to reacquaint myself with 'familiarity'.

I love living overseas with the constant learning of different cultures and even the occasional challenge it entails. My blog post from last September gives examples of what it is like for me to live in Thailand. Hence, it is refreshing in the midst of this to periodically reconnect with what is familiar.

This year my niece had a wonderful idea to visit all the homes that my parents (and family) lived in over the years. So one sunny morning we drove around the twin cities to observe how our homes of yesteryear were holding up. Fortunately all buildings are located within the same twin city area and still standing!

(And yes, this first picture is me as a teenager taking a picture of the house we lived in during the 70s. Nice bell-bottoms, huh =)

Fourth Avenue - Dad's Home Before Marriage - 1940s

The first two stops in our family excursion took us to the homes where my parents lived when they got married. Dad recalls moving to Fourth Ave when he was a teenager. The family cow and chickens were in the back of the truck along with household furniture when they left the farm for life in the city. Dad's dog Rex also made the move as can be seen in the picture with my aunt on the front lawn.

Weber Street East - Mom's Home Before Marriage - 1930s and 1940s

Mom recalls living in the Weber Street house all the years before she was married. So many of her memories are from this neighborhood. It is interesting to note that her family had to walk (or bike or roller-skate) everywhere in town since the family didn't own a car until years after my parents were married. You really get to know your part of town this way and, as a result, Mom can recall who lived in what house in the extended neighborhood during the 30s and 40s and can identify every challenging street in the downtown core with a steep slope!

The family back then enjoyed a wonderfully treed front yard with full front porch before the city decided to widen the street from two to four lanes. It's a shame, really, because it was necessary to dismantle half of the porch and tear down the trees in order to make room for pavement. The once quiet Weber Street became a major thoroughfare when the city decided to widen it in the late 1950s. Before road construction, however, my grandparents made the wise decision to move to a new neighborhood.

Even though Mom never lived at Edmund Road or Donald Street since she was already married, I decided to include these houses in this post because my siblings and I have so many wonderful memories of our grandparents at their houses. For instance, my sister remembers visiting family at Edmund Road since she was three or four years old and going next door to watch TV with the neighbor boys. Not everyone had a TV in the 1950s, my grandparents included. If I remember correctly, my grandparents went next door on a weekly basis to watch the I Love Lucy show!

Most of my memories, on the other hand, are at their next house on Donald Street. Here we had hosts of family holiday celebrations all seated around the table in the basement and I would conveniently drop in at mealtime between holidays =) By then my grandparents had a TV and my cousins and I would watch White Christmas that was televised every year on Christmas day in the afternoon.

St George Street - First Stop After Marriage - 1950

My entire family enjoys listening to stories of how my parents survived the early years of marriage. Needless to say, it was so different in the 1950s than young couples experience today.

We are reminded that apartments simply did not exist back then so my parents occupied a few rooms in a house on George Street. Three families not only shared the same house but a couple families shared the same bathroom, which prompted Dad to shower at the local YMCA and Mom to clean up at her parent's home on Weber Street! How times have changed. Now most family members enjoy their own bedroom and there are enough bathrooms in any given house for adequate privacy.

Brick Street - First House - 1950s

My parents built their first house close to our church on Brick Street. Mom remembers hardwood floors and heating the house with oil, both causing her a level of grief. Today the house stands pretty-much as it did when built over 60 years ago. Nice to know not everything has to change!

Betzner Avenue - Occasional Stopovers - 1950s

Fortunately my grandparents on my Dad's side had an available upper-floor apartment in their home which my parents occupied while waiting for completion of their own houses on Brick and Belleview. I have wonderful childhood memories including Sunday dinners and visiting my grandparents most every Thursday evening. This is where I learned some of the German language since my grandparents didn't speak very much English and all conversations were in German!

When we visited this house during our Parade of Homes tour, I was able to meet the current neighbors who are mostly young parents with small kids. I think they appreciated when I talked of former owners and what the neighborhood looked like 50 years ago.

Belleview Avenue - Second House - 1950s

I don't have a lot of memories of the next house we visited since I only lived there the first two years of my life. My older siblings on the other hand have lots of memories, from playing with our cousins who lived next door to backyard birthday parties. Today, the house is at the end of Belleview Ave because a freeway was built next to it in the late 60s.

Linton Place - Third House - 1960s and 1970s

While I have good memories from all our family residences, I would say this next home is my favorite because my early childhood was lived out at Linton Place.

I could write chapters on what I remember but I will whittle it down to this: I remember the tree my parents planted in the front yard over 50 years ago. The tree was a stick in the ground (relatively speaking) to what it is today. The house is still one of the nicest in the neighborhood... I'm not biased =)

Shallmar Court - Fourth House - 1970s and 1980s

By the mid-1970s, my family decided to move to Shallmar Court because it was close to my Dad's business. Once again, one of the first things my parents did was plant trees in the front and back yards. I bet subsequent owners greatly appreciated our efforts, for the trees now frame the house beautifully. No doubt, they would not have been as impressed with our shag carpet that was popular back then =)

Huntingdale Drive - Fifth House - 1980s and 1990s

I thoroughly enjoyed watching construction of the last single dwelling my parents owned. I was there to witness the birth of our house on Huntingdale Drive, from pouring of concrete to laying of roof tiles. The nice part? We didn't have to plant any trees at this address or the next because the lots were in woodland areas. From what I hear, the current owners have made some changes to the interior but, fortunately, the exterior still looks very much the same as it did when the house was sold 15 years ago.

Weber Street East - Sixth House - 2000s

It became clear that downsizing to a townhome was a good move when my siblings and I started making memories in our own places of residence. Needless to say, Weber Street East is a wonderful place to reconnect with the folks and visiting members of the family.

Land of Cacti

Now that it is summer break at my school in Thailand, I am able to reconnect with friends and family in North America. I am also able to use some of this time completing projects I simply can't get to during the school year, like creating online College Prep courses and attending a one week workshop in the Arizona desert.

The College Prep courses I created will guide every high school student (grades 9-12) at ICS in the development of college and career goals via a 10 step process – from determining personality traits to applying to colleges and surviving the workplace. I must admit it feels great to have these courses completed and ready for students to login next month when the new school year starts.

I am taking advantage of a summer workshop to learn more about a computer program used by counselors and students in the college prep process. The workshop is in Tucson Arizona utilizing conference facilities at the Marriott. What a beautiful location for this conference, some 300 feet above the city lights on a nearby mountain called Starr Pass. Like a friend commented, I am in the "Land of Cacti" and she was right on that!

The hotel is located in the Tucson Mountain Park, allowing visitors to experience life in the Sonoran Desert. You cannot miss the tall Saguaro (cactus that can grow to 60 feet in height) or surrounding steep-walled box canyon and trails. The resort itself is a bit of a showcase of southwest architectural design and facilities that include golf course and, of course, conference area to accommodate the hundreds of attendees.