Our First House

I was in Minnesota doing some due diligence on some potential jobs, and found myself in the Crystal neighborhood.  It so happens that Crystal is where we used to live when I was a tot, and we moved from there just before kindergarten started.

Here it is:

It seems hard to believe, but five of us lived in that little house.  Fortunately the basement was finished, so that pushed the square footage up to 1,500, however all five of us bunked on the first floor.  It had to be a tight squeeze, although as a kid I remember nothing but space.  Likewise, I remember a massive sliding hill in the front yard.  Not sure what they did with that...

The only concern was the proximity of the house to an in-service railroad track.  The track was just around the corner, and while it was absolutely verboten to be near it, my brother and I found our way there one day.  How mom ever found out where we were, I'll never know, but find us she did, and subsequently swatted our behinds all the way back to the house in such a way that neither my brother nor I ever had our feet hit the ground all the way back.  It about as impressive as ambidextrous and simultaneous butt swatting can be executed. 

Here is the back yard, which to me seem a gigantic wonderland.  The gate near the house, which is still the original, would hit me mid-thigh now, yet seemed positively impenetrable back in the day.

I was surprised at how many memories came back via this little visit, and am impressed on how we progressed from those lean, early days.