Dead End Street?


On a dead end street, three houses on the right sits the tiny three bedroom home where I grew up. Not long after my sister was born, my parents took out a $54.56 a month mortgage on a cinder block tract house at the end of South Chestnut Street. The house it self was less than 1200 sq. ft., okay for a family of four with two small kids. But as the years wore on it’s hard to believe we all fit in that tiny space. The house got even smaller with the addition of our baby brother, leaving five individuals to live in some pretty cramp space.

Our sister of course got here own room, leaving me and my baby brother to share a room. We had one bathroom to share, a kitchen dinette, a living room, and a small hallway closet. Needless to say, that left us kids with two spaces to call our own, the yard and our dead end street. Understand way back then there was no internet, no computers or smartphones. We picked up only three channels on our one black and white television. There was one house phone and it hung in the kitchen with a cord. Did I mention there was no privacy? But we all had bicycles and the freedom to ride the dirt streets of Bloomingdale.

I would love to say we lived an iconic life, but along with our relative freedom and imaginations. There were the bullies and the secrets a small town can keep. Time tends to white-wash the truth, but as the years fade we tend to think of yesterday as the “good old days” and believe me a lot of it was fun. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that our best days are behind us. We all live in this present moment and this is the one place where we can make a change. I suppose my question for you is, Are you going to continue mourning for the past or a better tomorrow or are you going to create a better moment today?     
   

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