Everyone always tends to talk about the towns they used to live in. All the things that they remembered from playing with their neighbors to playing in their backyards trying to catch frogs. Everyone has their own story - some bad and some good. My story is all over the place - literally and figuratively. I've lived in so many different places since I've been born that I've lost count. Let's just start at the beginning, with the first hometown that I actually remember and a bit of a background.
To start off, my parents had both been in the military and we traveled a lot depending on where they were stationed. My mother had been stationed in Texas, Germany, Maryland and in a few other countries, the same with my father. In the dead of winter when I was born, my family was currently in the Two Harbors area of Minnesota. A couple years later my sister was born, and not long after that, we moved to Italy. I wish I could remember more about living in such a place. All I really remember about that place was the house that we had rented out while living there. It was not far from the base and there was even a now ancient Blockbuster. The house was three stories high, with the highest being my father's office area and the basement which was where the computer was with a few guest rooms. I remember playing so many games, such as Put-Put and Pajama Sam on that computer, I thought I would have gotten sucked into the games if I wasn't called for food. Plus, the one time I was playing with another kid and I tried to push them in one of those plastic lawn mowers - I did it wrong and smashed some fingernails. That wasn't a fun time for me, especially when I wanted to play in the sandbox but couldn't because my fingers had not healed yet. But other than those small little snippets, there isn't much that I truly remember about living there.
The place that followed afterward I remembered a lot more of, living in a small little trucker stop town, at least at the time, of McAlester, Oklahoma. We lived in a little 90's brick home on 2 acres of land, at the time in the middle of nowhere. The tiled floors were everywhere in the house except the bedrooms, but it was always fun trying to slide from room to room and see who was the quickest. I remember the big stone fireplace that I always sat next to all year round and the decorations surrounding it. I even remember the roosters that were plastered all over the house, with the kitchen being the main area to find them all. Oh gosh, that rooster cookie jar that could make noise if you took off the lid - there was no way to get anything from that jar without anyone knowing. Besides the houses interior, I remember playing outside all the time - especially when animals came by. There was a farm not far away and I remember when the horses would come up straight to our fence and then feeding them, maybe even a few pets if they let me. We even had deer that would go in between the two sheds on our property and when we caught glimpses of them - oh man that was the best.
Even then, the town itself didn't really have much to do. Looking back on it now, I'm surprised I hadn't gone insane at that time - but I was also little so that might have helped a little. The biggest store you could go to was Walmart, not far away from the house. Hotels and restaurants littered the sides of the highway that drove through the town. The cool kids could only hang out at the library, the skate park and in the summer at the local pool. If you really wanted to do something great for a party - there was a rollerskating/bowling alley. The downtown McAlester area always seemed to look like a ghost town - even with the always changing decorations around the holidays.
My life has been ever changing since living in that small town. As I remember the good memories of hanging out with those friends that I still talk to every now and then, I really miss how simple it was back then. I miss not having to think about the impending doom of 'what if's'' and hoping to have the money to pay off schooling. I miss not having to care about anything that didn't make me happy and just doing whatever I wanted to. But I don't miss being there in that small little town. Ever since I left I've met some very amazing people that I otherwise would have never met. I'm happy with how my life has been so far, and I'll always remember that brick house back in that one hometown.
