My Old Stomping Grounds

Our family loves the adventure of going to a new area and we have had lots fun exploring our new city. What you may not know is that technically, Houston is not so new to me. I was born here and lived in The Heights until I was seven. In fact, we moved on my seventh birthday. Once, after I was married, I came back to the area that I had grown up in and visited it with my parents, but it had little meaning to me at the time, besides just remembering little bits about living there and reminiscing.

In an effort to continue our efforts of eating organically and locally we have found a little market called Revival Market that is not far from us. I had visited once myself and Shane had been up there a couple of times to pick up stuff for me. When I was up there, I was really struck with how familiar everything looked. A couple of weekends ago, we ran out of coffee and took the whole family on a run to get more coffee (they seriously have the best stuff I have ever tasted.)

While we were driving in the area, I was once again hit with deja vu and googled my old address for grins and giggles. (My parents were good parents and I will forever remember my first address: 1419 Dorothy Street, and my phone number, 869-8534.) The market is 3 blocks from where we used to live. I did remember from having visited with my parents awhile back that our old house was actually not there anymore, but we ended up on the street anyway.

This was my old elementary. Love Elementary. Mrs. Pierce was my 1st grade teacher and I thought that she was beautiful. The PTO used to sell pickles on Fridays right by this gate and my dad would give me a quarter so that I could get one. He also used to drive his truck right beside me while I walked to school in the morning so that this big, old mean dog wouldn't eat me alive on the street.
This church was right across the street from my house. I used to ride my bike and tricycle up and down the sidewalk next to the church. I also remember bouncing a tennis ball against the wall. They have done some extensive remodeling since the old days.
These trendy condos are now across the street from where our house was. Back in the day, The Heights were not the trendy, cool place to live that it is now. I remember houses, but they did not look like this.
This tortilla factory now fills the whole city block where our house was. Try to imagine a cute, white and blue house with a big, blue porch and two holly bushes in the front of the house. There was a long driveway that went up the side of the house with a little garden off the side. Next door was Mrs. Hattaway and she hated me. Especially, when I would stand outside naked with the water hose and fill up my little swimming pool in the summer. She would come outside and glare at me and then huff and puff as loudly as she could while she swept her driveway for the umpteenth time a day.

I really had a great time walking down memory lane as we drove through the neighborhood. My first best friends lived on that street. I learned how to play kickball there and also learned the injustices of the older kids being team captains and me always getting chosen last. We caught tadpoles in the big puddle on the old lot that is now a house. Oh, and the street was a lot shorter than I remembered. I could have sworn that the walk from my house, to the school, to my friends house, was miles long. Even though I was only there until I was seven, that little area will always carry a significant weight in the memory of my childhood.