I live about a mile from the house I lived in from the time I was seven until I was 18. Elk Grove divides itself into two sections: East and West. When the town was founded in 1956 it was mostly farmland. As it grew, houses began springing up and the community was forming.
Our first house was called a Quad. We lived at 767 Wellington Avenue and my phone number was 437-9168. I still have those numbers engraved in my memory, even after all of these years.
The Quads were made up of four small two-bedroom 1 1/2 bath dwellings. There were four single car garages and large connecting driveways. Today these would be considered townhomes. We lived in the Quad from 1973-1977 and it was in this place that I would experience many firsts in my life.
The Quad was were I first kissed Paula Kloakashar. The Quads was were I had my first major injury, getting hit in the left eye with a large mound of dirt, putting me in Alexian Brothers Medical Center for three days, complete with patches over my eyes to slow any further injury to my sight. This was were "The Fat Lady" tried to abduct me, where my brother, Ira, would accidentally throw a baseball bat at me, sending me running home, screaming for my mother. It was were Ira and I would walk around, trying our hardest to say the word "vacation." We couldn't do it. The harder we tried, the harder it was to say the word. Maybe it was because we had never gone on one. The Quad was were I met and played with Mary Kellerman, who years later, would be a victim in the Tylenol cyanide poisoning tragedy. I had already moved to the other side of town when that happened. So had Mary.
Many people moved from the East side of town, aka "The Old Part of Town" to the West side once the bigger families needed the bigger homes that were being built.
I remember the day we moved. It was December 21, 1977. It snowed that day. When we were in the moving truck, on our way to the new house, I saw a sign that read "Soft Shoulder" and thought aloud how weird it was going to be living near a human body part. That one made everyone laugh. I wasn't sure why.
Our second house was much bigger than the Quad. We had four bedrooms, each of the boys getting their own, and 2 1/2 bathrooms. We had a basement, a living room, and a dining room. We had a yard and a two car garage. It was the house where new memories were going to be made; where new firsts were going to happen. The address was 850 Racine Circle and the phone number was, well, I've forgotten that one.
We ate Kentucky Fried Chicken the first night in our new house. All of our stuff was still packed away in boxes, and neither one of our parents were interested in cooking. We sat on boxes, made a makeshift table, and talked about the things we were going to do in our new house.
It was exciting, and I am sure a little scary, for everyone. I have fond memories of the place I called home for so long. But it's the first night, the night we ate chicken on boxes, the night I picked out my very own bedroom, that I remember best.
It's memories like this one, I hope our children keep with them 32 years later.
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