Below Average

In one of the many bits of information I read online each day, I came across the fact that the average person lives in 10 places throughout their life. Hmmm. Challenge accepted! I decided to run through the places I've called home to see how I stack up. I'm not counting 6th Floor on Maple Hall at ISU - where I spent 2 part years of my life.

Watercolor of our home designed by my grandfather Herbert Morehead

• The home place in Atlantic. My my grandpa (Mom's dad) designed. It was really cool for its time (built around 1950). Each of the three bedrooms had a built in dresser and there was a built-in bookshelf in the living room. Mom had a wide plank hard wood oak floor installed in the kitchen and family room way before most people considered that type of floor covering. Back then the wood needed upkeep and a couple times a year she and the cleaning lady would apply paste wax and use a machine to polish it. That's when it was really fun to slide down the hall in our socks!

230 Campus Avenue - so modern in 1978!

• My first apartment in Ames where I lived with Sally, Jane and Vicki. It was fully furnished and we were the first people to move into the two bedroom place, owned by Scott Randall brother of Tom who played football at ISU. All the cool kids lived there! Susan Weinheimer, Don McKim (after I was long gone), Paul Goldsmith, Jane Ertl and my roomies. I've talked to lots of other people I've met through the years who also spent time at 230 Campus.  

Bucko with my cactus Rocky in 1980

• apartment Sioux Falls - my first place by myself. It was also furnished with typical 1970's furniture, though it was 1980 by then. Check out the gold shag carpet. Bucko enjoyed climbing the ugly curtains before he was de-clawed.

• Omaha  - apartment way out west. It was a one bedroom with a cathedral ceiling on the third floor. I finally had to buy some furniture from Nebraska Furniture Mart - with the help of Betso who yelled at them to make sure I had a bed to sleep in that first night.
• CB apartment right behind K-Mart. I moved across the river right before Paul and I got married and Betso lived with me that summer - she was a student at Creighton working a summer job at Chucky Cheese. It was another third floor apartment, and by then we had more furniture thanks to my grandparents who moved to Heritage House, the retirement place in Atlantic. Thank goodness for strong friends who carried stuff up 3 flights for beer and pizza!
• The rental house where Paul had his first DC job in Osage. The landlord was a French Canadian named Henry who had rehabbed the place. An older woman lived in the other part of the house. She was hard of hearing so we could hear her TV through the walls. There was no shower so we had to use the sit and spray method in the tub. There were a few nights I heard mice in the ceiling. #sleeplessinOsage

Our first Creston house - Memorial Day party

• Our first home in Creston was great! We loved it and spent many, many hours (and $) working on that place, which was green inside and out, top to bottom when we bought it. We lived there just over 10 years. I have many good and some sad memories from that place. There were some wonderful and a few not so good neighbors.

We loved this home overlooking McKinley Lake

• Our second home on the west side of Creston still holds a dear place in my heart. (and deer because they used to bed down in the back yard) Again, our friends came through in the moving department. We did leave the piano behind, but that heavy fold-out couch was a bear. Again - more living and memories there. I still miss the neighbors, and the deck. It was my happy place.

Our DSM home is among this group of townhomes

• West Des Moines. We love our home here. We chose it after several days of house hunting with Marge, the "veteran" (she must be in her mid 80's) realtor. It's a very livable space that is big enough when visitors come. Paul does miss the yard work a little...except when he doesn't. It's right on the bike path, convenient to shopping and the freeway. It's perfect! If only we could transplant our friends here from other places. I must admit we have been lax in trying to make new ones. It's not as easy when you don't have kids to help pave the way. So if you're in the area - message me and we'll get together.

So there. I came up with nine places I've lived. Of course I'm not done yet! Who knows where Pablo and I will end up next? Paul counted up 12 places his laid his head down. Above average!

Homes are important. I had a recent conversation with someone who had gone back to see their childhood home. They wished they wouldn't have since it was much smaller and dumpier (current owner not keeping it up) than they remembered. Just like my old grade school when I went back - those coat racks were down so low...