Personal History #5

Where did you live while growing up?

House plan of the yellow house to the best of my memory.

I was born in Goleta, California, in the United States of America. The first year or two of my life was spent living in a condo with my parents and older sister, before my family moved to a small yellow house in the same town. This is the first home I can really remember, and it was here that I spent my childhood. The driveway in front of the house curved around the lawn, ending in a garage door that was perpendicular to the street. The front of the garage was concealed by two tall trees (which I spent a fair amount of time climbing), as well as a few smaller bushes. I remember that the garage wall frequently hosted a family of snails. I remember that the driveway had a low spot next to the lawn, where a muddy puddle would form after a rain, which was perfect for floating small paper boats. The front door opened on a short entry hall. To the right was the kitchen, straight ahead was another hall, perpendicular to the first. Turning right down this hall, one entered the living room, with the bulk of the room to the right, and further on, the dining room opened to the left, adjacent to the kitchen. Down the hall to the left originally were four doors - three leading to bedrooms and a fourth to a bathroom. Later on an addition was built ( I think there were four kids in the family at this point), turning one bedroom into a family room, and adding two bedrooms and another bathroom to the house. The back yard was large, and contained a patio, a grassy lawn, a swing set and a yucca tree, as well as a garden area. Next door resided two large black dobermans, who frequently stuck their noses through gaps in the fence and barked at us whenever we chanced to play in the backyard. I remember that if we stood on top of our swing set on a clear day and looked west, we could see the ocean. A couple blocks away was a 7-Eleven where sometimes Mom would send us to buy milk when we ran out between shopping trips.

About the time I turned 12, (and there were about seven children in the family) my family moved to Mission Viejo, California, where I spent the remainder of my youth. The house there seemed huge at first, with four bedrooms, plus a humongous bonus room upstairs as well as a large living room, family room, and spacious kitchen downstairs. The back yard was also a good size, with no scary dogs next door to discourage us from playing in it. My bedroom was up stairs at the end of a hall, the window looking out over the backyard. It was a great place to live!