12:45 PM
When I was a kid, about 4?5? years old, we lived in a little yellow house in the Pennfield area. This house had(still has) a long, narrow backyard. In this backyard, I had a swing set. One with a slide, a seesaw type swing and 2 regular swings. The yard was fenced in, and when you faced toward the back, on the right was the house where my friend Shelley lived. I never knew what happened to Shelley after we moved from that house, but that's another story for another day.
I don't remember getting up that morning. I don't remember going outside. Where the memory picks up, is when I'm kneeling in the backyard next to this hole in the ground.
It was right next to my swingset, which, ironically was suddenly missing a swing. No, this is not a trick of my mind, I know there had been 2 swings the day before, and now there was one.
This hole was nearly perfectly round, about 3 feet across and went down, to my young mind, forever, actually it probably only went down maybe 5-6 feet. The bottom was filled with muddy, coffee with heavy cream colored water.
I remember kneeling right on the edge, looking down and spying a few of my toys floating in that water. In particular, a Lincoln Log and a red block, I think it was a Lego. I also remember dropping rocks into that hole. Right before Bonnie came out and yelled at me to get away from the hole. I'm not positive, but I think my brother may have wandered over around that time as well.
The memory ends there. I'm thinking that we may have possibly moved right about that time. Especially since I don't remember anyone fixing the hole.
I don't remember my dad being around, so I think it was during the time period that he and Bonnie were divorcing. I do remember still living in that house with Bonnie and her boyfriend, the paranoid schizo(not a judgement call, he truly was diagnosed as this), Bob.
I have very few memories from living in that house.
One is of me riding my tricycle, the one with the double platform on the back, so it was twice as high as regular trikes are, I remember trying to catch up with my friends who rode 2 wheel bikes and riding straight into the huge oak tree at the end of the driveway(I don't know if its still there, but the house is now blue, heh), I remember Bonnie coming over, standing me up and telling me, as I bawled, I was fine.
I remember the fuses blowing in the house. I remember earlier that day(maybe zero dark thirty in the morning?), having snuck out to the kitchen and swiping my bag of Swedish Fish(this was when Swedish Fish were twice the size they are now and came in various colors/flavors), and while Bonnie held the flashlight and Bob tried to replace the fuses, getting my chair, and sitting there eating Swedish Fish I'd dumped in my toy purse. I remember Bonnie asking what I was eating, then taking the purse away from me, shining the flashlight into it to see what was in it and yelling at me. I don't think I ever got another Swedish Fish while we lived with her.
I remember going to Sunday School with Shelley( even remember bits and pieces of that time as well), that church still stands and looks exactly the same.
I remember storing blocks of floor wax, the kind you had to melt and mix with hot water to use, under my bed and getting in trouble for playing with them.
I don't remember moving from that house.
When we went home to Michigan last summer on vacation, my mom asked Allison if she wanted to see a house I used to live in. This house happened to be the little yellow house, and was actually a block away from where Allison and her family were currently living, before they moved and sold that house.
Other than now being blue, the house looked much the same, a little more rundown maybe. I don't think the oak tree is there anymore. The fenced backyard was the same, Shelley's house was the same as well.
I know now that the hole was from the sewer tank collapsing and I have to wonder, that the sides didn't cave in on me with me kneeling right there on that edge.
They, whoever 'they' are, say you can never go back.
Maybe not, but you sure can visit sometimes.