The fact is, I didn't arrive there until I was 35, but it became the best place to play in my life. It was simultaneously the best place to work, and the best place to raise a family, and the best place to contribute to the betterment of a lot of needy people. Not bad for one small piece of real estate.
when i was a child, i liked to explore the hills in front of and behind my house. I forgot if I took you there.. there were and still are many tumbs for japanese soilders on that hill.
http://www.0415cn.com/xinxi/images/baisl.jpg
my fave game during fall was grass sliding and in winter was skiing down the hill. But because of the green house effect, I haven't done both of those in years. After my mom and I moved to live near the riverside(when i was in juniorhigh), my fave game during summer time(or way to relax myself) was to lie on the grass near the riverside and enjoy the shade and birds singing. During fall i liked to walk down the street behind my school. http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4818/20071181635165129655342yw8.jpg
This is how my home looks like now: http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4774/rurl2c88118523aac7c8576tz5.jpg
This was how it looked like 70 yrs ago: http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/8159/2007092786b2f5c27eaeeb8af1.jpg
This was the flood time i told u in the yr 1995: http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7967/20080806d3c91966832577asa1.jpg
Those photos of Angie's are beautiful. I wanted to tell you that Keel's house was one of my favorites. The windows that looked out on to the llanos, and the birds in the trees could be watched from the living room. Of my own childhood, visiting Balboa for 1 or 2 weeks each summer was the best! Swimming, sailing, running down to the pier to see what the fishing boats brought in, or just walking around "downtown" Balboa where everything was within walking distance.
1/19/2009 10:52:00 AM
Since my time has expired this month, and my life has clearly been too boring to have anything to comment about, we now have what I know you all have actually been most hoping for: an all new episode of the Yellow Card Question Show!
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. With great gravity and ceremony, magnetism and antimony, I spin the stack and flip the wheel: [Image]
There were lots of good places to play when I was a kid. Wild grassy fields, big branchy trees, a lake for swimming and canoeing, clay hillsides and dirt drainage ditches. When I was living in this house: [Image] there was a valley just off to the left there that had lots of entertainment. There was a small patch of jungle (including bird-of-paradise flowers, termites and cowkillers, porcupines, ...) and grassy little hill that we frequently had campouts on. I remember one summer (I think it must have been 1988) my friends and I must have camped out there several times in just a few weeks, and we got mad at our sisters when they did too, because they were copy-catting us. (A clear violation of childhood etiquette.) We also played a lot of tag and hide-and-seek games in that yard, and the bushes around the edge of the yard (gone now) were just the right height for jumping over. And when the wind was blowing good, you could stand at the edge of the hill and lean really far into it, especially if you tied a sheet to your ankles and grabbed the other two corners with your hands.
When we lived in this house: [Image] we were a lot closer to the lake, and the neighbors had a canoe we could borrow. I spent a lot of time out in that canoe during the summertime. For some reason I can't articulate, it was particularly fun to be out when it was windy or rainy. That ditch in the foreground was also great for building a dirt city. Me and the neighbor kids made quite a town carved into the side of that ditch, with roads for matchbox cars, little lawns made of moss, and a couple high-rise buildings made of fresh mud. The brush and palm trees along the lake had parrots and cranes, boas and iguanas, and an occasional fox. In the lake we caught cool fish (mostly for the fish tank, since the largest ones were dogfish and piranhas, which generally had worms) and sometimes turtles. In the old days, there was a giant mango tree right in front of the house that was pretty good for climbing, and there was an even better one up the hill on the left.
There were so many different good places to play in those days, I think the best I can do is say that the whole area was my favorite.
"YCQ #13 / New Years' Resolution"
6 Comments -
Good memories.
12/31/2008 05:40:00 PM
The fact is, I didn't arrive there until I was 35, but it became the best place to play in my life. It was simultaneously the best place to work, and the best place to raise a family, and the best place to contribute to the betterment of a lot of needy people. Not bad for one small piece of real estate.
1/01/2009 12:02:00 AM
"Yeah. What he said."
1/06/2009 05:13:00 AM
when i was a child, i liked to explore the hills in front of and behind my house. I forgot if I took you there.. there were and still are many tumbs for japanese soilders on that hill.
http://www.0415cn.com/xinxi/images/baisl.jpg
my fave game during fall was grass sliding and in winter was skiing down the hill. But because of the green house effect, I haven't done both of those in years.
After my mom and I moved to live near the riverside(when i was in juniorhigh), my fave game during summer time(or way to relax myself) was to lie on the grass near the riverside and enjoy the shade and birds singing. During fall i liked to walk down the street behind my school.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4818/20071181635165129655342yw8.jpg
This is how my home looks like now:
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4774/rurl2c88118523aac7c8576tz5.jpg
This was how it looked like 70 yrs ago:
http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/8159/2007092786b2f5c27eaeeb8af1.jpg
This was the flood time i told u in the yr 1995:
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7967/20080806d3c91966832577asa1.jpg
angie
1/18/2009 07:57:00 AM
Those are really pretty.
Here are the image links so people can see them easier.
hill
street behind school
home now
home 70 yrs ago
flood
1/18/2009 08:49:00 AM
Those photos of Angie's are beautiful. I wanted to tell you that Keel's house was one of my favorites. The windows that looked out on to the llanos, and the birds in the trees could be watched from the living room.
Of my own childhood, visiting Balboa for 1 or 2 weeks each summer was the best! Swimming, sailing, running down to the pier to see what the fishing boats brought in, or just walking around "downtown" Balboa where everything was within walking distance.
1/19/2009 10:52:00 AM