{ Blog 364 #13 - Remember when? }

 

 

Good morning sweet ladies, how are you all doing?

Come on in out of the cold.  It's quite chilly this morning, which means I am on my second cup of coffee.  

So here we are, it is Friday morning and for my Blog 365 post, I am going back in time.  I am firstly, bringing back a feature I used a lot back in my early blogging days.  My Remember When!

It was a Friday feature where I told a story of my childhood, a family time together, showed you a place I once lived, took you on little tours and so on.  It was such a great way to remember my childhood and my life growing up in Portugal and South Africa.  I don't know why I stopped doing this feature, I mean, I guess as time went on, I didn't have the time, or I wasn't blogging as much, or I simply just forgot about it.

But, I thought it would be a great way to help with my Blog 365.  If I have certain days for specific posts, then at least I know those days, I don't have to think so hard about what I am going to bring on that day.

Anyway, sit back, grab a cup of coffee or tea, this is going to be a bit of a longer post than usual.

 

 

 

I was laying in bed this morning, and suddenly the name of an old suburb we used to live in, back in South Africa, popped into my mind.....quickly followed by a vision of the house and the warm feelings it invoked in me.

 

When something like this happens, I just follow the nudge.  I know that for some reason, God is prompting me to talk about it.  I don't know why, maybe it's just the Holy Spirit helping with an idea for a post this morning, or maybe it's something I'm supposed to remember.  Whatever it is, I am sure glad it came up.

So, my early childhood was spent in Portugal, but when I turned 10, my dad got a transfer from his job in Portugal to Johannesburg, South Africa.  That is where the remainder of my childhood was spent, until I was 24, had just married my husband, and moved to Boise, Idaho, here in the United States.

While living in South Africa, we moved quite a few times, so I have memories of different houses, different suburbs and of course, different experiences, and I intend to share those with you in upcoming posts.  But for some reason, this specific house, in the suburb of Towerby, just came out of nowhere.

Towerby is a suburb of Johannesburg.

I tried to find pictures of the suburb but couldn't really find anything online.  That's ok.

I think one of the reasons why this home was so special to me, growing up, is that not only did myself, my 3 brothers, dad and stepmom, live in it, but so did my grandmother and grandfather, and my great grandmother.  At one point, during a few months, so did my uncle and aunt.  

A packed house to say the least, but that is what I was used to.  A lot of people, big table set for dinner with animated chatter and the most delicious food to eat.  Conversation, laughter....just wonderful memories.

It was so long ago, I think I was around 12 or so at the time, so I don't remember the exact address off the top of my head.  The next best thing to do is obviously open Google Maps, which I did.  I quickly found the last home we lived in before I left South Africa and then *drove* the distance to Towerby.  It was literally just down the road, a suburb or two away.

 

 

This view, is of the road I would have walked, yes, walked down many many times.  On the left corner, where it apparently now houses some sort of adult shop, used to be a corner little cafe where my brothers and I would walk to, to play pacman or buy candy.

It's so sad to look on it now and see just how awful everything looks.  How the streets, stores, houses have been destroyed.  

As we continue straight ahead, the road starts to curve and just a little down the way, is 444 Rifle Range Road, Towerby.

Or, it used to be.  

My heart just breaks seeing what our house looks like now....ok, our old house I should say.  It used to be the most gorgeous white house, with big round windows and a veranda out front.   Green grass surrounded it, there was a small white wall that encircled the house and showed off the big columns at the front door.

 

 

This is what it looks like now.   I want to cry. You can still see some of the white, but my goodness.  

 

I guess I can't be surprised, so many decades have gone by, but it's always sad when you return to a place where you grew up and still have a vision in your mind, that is completely different to the actual state of the property.

I would sit on the front wall of the house, watching the cars go by, or chatting with my friend Lisette.  She lived across the street and about 2 houses down to the left.  We would sometimes go to her house after school, and her mom would give us peanut butter sandwiches.  I remember it so vividly.

We were friends all through Primary (elementary) school, but when we passed to high school, we drifted because we had moved closer to my high school which was The Hill High, and she stayed in the same house.  Her high school was just about a block or so behind her house, so she went to Forest High.  

I wish I had tons of pictures to show you, but I don't, at least not with me.  I have asked my stepmom, back in South Africa, to get send me as many as she can, but I'm not even sure if she still has any.  

 

All I know is that I have the fondest memories.  We had a huge staircase that my brothers and I would slide down.  We would grab our sleeping backs, climb in and then slide all the way down the carpet stairs.  Sometimes we went head first.  Crazy I tell ya.  If I saw one of my kids doing that today, I would flip out hahahah

 

Downstairs we had a huge living room.  It was to the right of the front door.  And to the left we had my great grandma's room, next to it the dining room, and then the kitchen.  She loved it, it was her domain.  She spent most of her days in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning and making yummy desserts for us.  I love her, and I miss her so much.

 

 

To the right of the kitchen was a door to the backyard, and next to it, down a little hallway was a small bathroom, and then a smallish room where we kept our computer.  Our ONLY computer, which was shared by all four siblings.  I don't think I need to tell you how that went LOL

 

I do remember playing King's Quest, and Qbert on it.  We also played this Decathlon Sports game, that we had to hit the two keys really quickly to make the person run and then the space bar so they could jump over the poles.  All you would hear was 4 young kids excitedly yelling and the constant clicking of the keys followed by a hard slam of the space bar.  I can't tell you  how much we laughed.

Upstairs we had 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.  Two of the bathrooms were full HUGE bathrooms, and then in the middle a smaller one with just a toilet and a sink.  

Those bathrooms used to be my doll bath areas.  I would line up all my dolls, from my bedroom, all the way to the bathroom and then give them a bath, one at a time.  Hahahahah   Then line them all up again, all the way to the bedroom and pack them away.

While I did this, I would listen to my favorite album at the time, which was a compilation of hits of the time.  We Built This City by Starship, Lessons in Love by Level 42 and so many others.  

 

When I wasn't washing all my dolls, I would be trying to recreate the series V.  I tell you, I had an imagination like nothing else.  I pretended to be Diana.  I thought she was just so beautiful and amazing, and I wanted to be like her.  So I would go to the veranda, stand by the door inside, and make that Wooshhhhhh sound of the door opening, then I would step through and pretend I was on the spaceship.

 

Wow, those are some memories.  

If I get the photos from my stepmom, I will come back and share them.  For now though, my memories are all I have and it's in my head that it will have to remain.

I will say, I had an amazing childhood and one which I am so incredibly thankful for.  It does make me want to go back in time, right there to those moments.  *sigh*