6001 Flowerdale

Today we drove past my childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio. I lived there till I was nine years old, from 1970 to 1979.
I was amazed to see that after all these years the old street had not been updated and still was paved with red bricks just like I remembered.

Seeing the old house brought back so many memories. Most of which were good memories, but a few bad ones did come to mind as well.

It was that very house that I learned how to crawl, say my first words, and ride a bike for the first time.

It was on that very street that I was lucky to escape fatal injury. One day I wasn't being very cautious as I rode my bike down the driveway and into the street. I caused a car to come to a unexpected screeching halt. My bike was sucked under the car but, lucky I was only thrown to the tree lawn. I was very lucky I didn’t end up in the same place as my bike did. I did get a new bike for my next birthday. My brother made it from pieces and parts of other bikes and painted it to look brand new! It was a the coolest bike ever!


Some random thoughts that came to mind today when I saw my old house:

• My father was a police office when we lived there.
• My mother worked at Joesph & Feis & Company.
• My dad, my uncle Randy, and my brother Tom used to build race cars in the garage.
• I used to jump off the front porch with an umbrella. (I wanted to know what it felt like to fly I guess.)
• My family and the police looked for me for hours after I left a note that said I was running away from home. They found me safe and asleep, hiding in my bedroom closet.
• We used to roller skate in the back of the house. I remember my skates had metal wheels and keys to tighten them as you had to wear them with your shoes on.
• We had a swimming pool. Back then I wore bikinis believe it or not. My brother's friends used to pee in the pool I think!
• I used to sit on the black top driveway with Michael Ondash and pop tar bubbles with sticks.
• Kimberly Puchakowski was my best friend!
• We had a kitchen fire once.
• We had a dog named Prince. That is a picture of me on the back porch with him. (His name was not Toby as it says on the dog house. Not sure where that came from because we never had a dog named Toby)