Slide Memories from North Carolina

Before I lived in Evansville we lived in North Carolina. We were only there ten months and my memories from that time are few. I remember my address. I remember my Dad telling me to learn my address so I went outside to the front yard and put my hand on a tree and walked around and around and around that tree sing song-ing my address over and over. I've never forgotten that address sung to that tune to this day.

The house we lived in was the greatest house. I remember moving to Indiana and wishing years later that we could have moved our entire North Carolina house to Indiana to make my life just perfect. It had the best basement ever. For years I would dream about that basement and then in the same dream there would be a secret door that led to another secret area in the basement. Because my memories of that time were so sketchy I always wondered if it were true.

I remember everything about the house except for the bedrooms. No matter how hard I try I have absolutely no recollection of my room, Rusty's room, or my parents' room. Or the bathrooms. I don't remember them either. So I studied this picture really hard. I know the toy box. I still don't remember the room.

The basement had this really cool bar in the play area. We spent many a great time down there pretending we were bartenders mixing up drinks. It also had a neat fireplace and I think several other rooms, maybe a bathroom. I spent the majority of my time down there.

The other neat thing about the house was the woods in the back of our house. The backyard was huge and right behind it were woods. Woods to go exploring in. Woods to hike in. Woods that I thought scary wolves lived in. We had an upper deck that extended out over the backyard from our kitchen. Below it was a porch that led out from the basement. It was a great house.

One memory I swear I have is my mother waking me up and asking me if I had seen my brother. I remember looking around and thinking she was nuts and telling her no. They found him outside. He had slept-walked outside, dug a little hole in the snow, and crawled inside to sleep. I told that story anytime Rusty's sleepwalking came up in conversation. I don't think anyone else remembered that episode.

We got our first pet in North Carolina. This cat appeared one day and we began feeding it. We named her Amy. She lived in our garage until my Dad came home from traveling. He took one look at the cat and said, "This isn't an Amy, it's an Amos." He was Amos from then on. He thought he was a dog. He made the move to Indiana with us, but disappeared one day while my parents were out of town and we were staying with neighbors.

Another memory I have is getting locked out of our house. Don't remember how that happened, but remember my mother pulling out the jalousied window pane from the door in our garage that led into the kitchen. I remember being impressed, but then worrying that if it were that easy then a robber could do the same thing.

I have two memories of school in North Carolina. One was giving my teacher decorative soaps for Christmas. The other was falling asleep with my head on my desk. I awoke and heard the teacher tell the class to exit the room single file. I don't remember where we were going, only that I didn't want to go so I kept pretending that I was still asleep. The teacher turned off the light and I raised my head thinking the class was gone. My teacher was standing there looking at me and she just moved her hand for me to join the line. I remember feeling really cheated.

I also remember eating hush puppies at most meals and having to say, "Ma'am?" when our mother called our names. Everything was very southern with the "Yes, Ma'am and No, sir". It was a good ten months. Or so I remember.