How do I feel about the place where I grew up…
I have a pretty blessed life. I have a good family, friends, and social circle. I practice my manners, and I love good diversity. I think one of this is a manifestation of the people that have come across my life, and one of those places is the place where I grew up.
I have lived in many places. I was born in Lousiana, but spent my young childhood in Green River, WY. My dad was a chemist and as such was a natural safety person, so he was offered a mining job in the hills of Wyoming. At an elevation of 6,100 feet, it set the stage for so many things that I still value in my life today.
My First Memories
My first memory in the place I grew up is me on a big wheel. I loved Big Wheels! I had one that was a standard blue, red and yellow, and I loved to ride it, and I loved my Popeye shirt that I wore just about every day in summer. My first memory is me riding down Easy Street (yes Easy St) and spinning into the driveway. My dad had a ’78 Blazer (shoulda kept that one) and we went into the woods often. My house was 100 yards away from a mountain, and I would sneak up and climb it. I walked uphill both ways to school in the snow, and when they installed the new emergency siren, I remember that I was scared to death.
But there was so many things that I am still so thankful for today. Wyoming gave me a love for winter, a love for cold, and a love for playing in the winter and the cold. It gave me a love for mountains, and driving in them, and learning to sometimes just stop and enjoy the view. I still enjoy mountains to this day, and one of these days I will live in them again. Green River put me in the news paper for the first time at a soccer game where I gave up multitudes of goals. It gave me great teachers and OTs, and great opthalmologists in SLC who worked on my vision to make it what it is today.
The place where I grew up gave me a love for national parks, from the multiple trips to Flaming Gorge, to the trips to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, which is love that I carry forward today.
Of all the things of my life, the place where I grew up is something that I love, and I can’t imagine my life without it.
