In the middle of my third grade year we moved from our country home to the city...out of MO...to Illinois. I remember when I left my best friend. I cried. But I remember being excited about moving to a new place. I've always been adventurous like that.

When we arrived, I couldn't believe that I would actually get to live in the big city. However, Washington Illinois wasn't really...that big. But to me it was.

I loved the new house.

That first night I stood outside in the driveway and looked up and down the street at the houses with their lights on and I was happy. Maybe my lips smiled, I don't know, but I know my heart was smiling. I was thinking that in those houses had to be other children to play with and I was pleased.

And there were...children who became my friends...up and down the street. I really loved living there in the city. But my folks really really wanted to come back home to MO. We did...three years later.

Comments on the photo:
Have you identified me as pink dress girl?
Have you noticed that I look like a baby Mary Tyler Moore?
Have you noticed that my legs were bowed? (They still are)
Have you noticed that wonderful old car in the background?
I don't know who lived on the right, but a highway patrolman and his fam lived on the left... next door to us.

One final thought. I think we were so cute that we're lucky our parents didn't try and sell us to Hollywood.

Did you move as a child? How many times? Did you love it or hate it?

Have a great weekend.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Great photograph... a picture that tells a thousand things.
I love the picture! You look just the same.

I moved once (when I was old enough to remember it)...it was an in-town move, but I was very sour about it! I wanted to stay in the old location, which had a vacant lot next door that I played in (I was 12.)

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen
Angela C. said…
First of all toothaches rival childbirth. I have a cavity on the nerve, and it's abscessed. So now medicated, and scheduled for the "evil" tooth removed on Tuesday...I have hope of being my super nice self again. My son can't wait for that to happen...apparently I've evolved into someone else this week (Ha).
Love the picture! Now my older, but totally cool sister got to move to different places when it was just mom, dad, and her...but they settled into one place before I was born. Funny I always felt cheated. You know, I thought it was cool when new kids started school...after moving. I thought it would be so exotic or something to move from house to house.
Now I'm getting ready to knock on 40, and I've moved twice as an adult and am glad that's all it's been. Too much work! Ha.
You look so cute in your pink dress! Is that baby Tammy I saw in there as well...well looked like a baby?

Angela
Joanne said…
We moved 4 times as a child, from city to country to suburbs. Once the 4th move happened as I was starting jr high, I was happy to stay put. Now as an adult, I plant myself. 16 years in our last house, 9 and counting in this, with no moves in sight!
Devon Ellington said…
I moved more as an adult than a a child. Hate the physical move, but love the chance to start fresh.
CM said…
What a nostalgic picture. My first thought was, "Back when things were simplier." Is that a fair assessment?

My parents were never married, seperated when I was 3. Dad lived in the City in a icky old 100 year old house. Mom lived in the projects in the City and then moved to the country when I was 7. I went back and forth many times, I think 7 or so different schools. Total chaos, a whole book worth of stories. Maybe someday I'll get the courage to write about it.
Arlee Bird said…
Enjoyed the childhood memories and old pictures are always fun to look at (well I guess it's not really that old of a picture, but you know what I mean).

As I child we moved a lot, and with my family working side gigs in show business we traveled a lot, so moving didn't bother me that much. It was always an adventure and I guess that's why I ended up on the road for so much of my adult life. I enjoy being a homebody, but I dream of the road life and enjoy travel whenever I can.

Lee
Carol Kilgore said…
I moved once as a child, from one side of our city to the other. Loved it!

My live-in handyman and I have moved many times with the U.S. Coast Guard and some on our own.
Yes, CUTE. I never moved until I left home. I always wanted to.
Cindy said…
It's always fun to see old photos like that. We moved a few times when I was a kid but only from one house to another in the same area so I never had to change schools or anything like that. As a grown up, my family has lived in the same house for the past 25 years.

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