1001 was my street address growing up on Carolyn Avenue in Elkhart, Indiana. There was a park right behind our house and I’m reminded of many childhood memories. There was a baseball diamond, basketball goal, swing set, picnic tables, playhouse, slide, sand box, a creek, and a thick woods along the river. It was all situated just down the hill from our back door. It was ideal for sledding in the winter months. Here are some random snippets from my years of living there:

  • A rock in the forehead from trying to duck them while hiding inside the playhouse.

  • A golf club to the back of the head. More stitches.

  • A tree limb that fell on me while playing.

  • Finding hidden pennies in the park sand box.

  • Making crafts on the picnic tables with the Park Department instructors.

  • Saturday morning kids movies at the ELCO Theater. 

  • Fourth of July family reunions at Simonton Lake or Cook’s Ranch.

  • Climbing the basketball goal and trees.

  • Finding Playboy magazines in the woods.

  •  A neighbor friend falling from some construction scaffolding.

  • Shooting a gun for the first time.

  • Making the grade school basketball team.

  • Vacation Bible School cherished pin.

  • Trips to Frankfort, IN for Thanksgiving with my cousins and grandparents.

  • Buying baseball cards and candy at the neighborhood grocery.

  • Junior Basketball Camp at Taylor University – nickname “Smiley” starts.

  • Clothes-pinning baseball cards to my bicycle spokes.

  • Stuffing a loaf of bread under my bicycle seat to transport it home to my mom for dinner.

  • Having the chicken pox and measles.

  • Interest in coins through a next-door neighbor. 1909 S V.D.B. penny.

  • Worrying about a panther that had escaped in the woods.

  • Watching my older neighbor meticulously brush snow off his blue jeans while sledding. This same guy lost a leg in a motorcycle accident a few years later.

  • A birthday party on the baseball diamond.

  • Kissing the neighbor girl under the utility sink in her basement.

  • Catching frogs and polliwogs in the creek. 

  • Dribbling the basketball in our basement for hours.

  • TV dinners on trays in front of the basement black & white television.

  • Dressing up as football players with my sister

  • Sleeping next to my new Schwinn bicycle.

  • Watching the 1959 World Series between the White Sox and Dodgers.

  • Flying kites in the park.

  • Collecting bottle caps from the neighborhood pop machines.

  • Using fake pennies from a bracelet in a gum ball machine

  • “Wrong Way” Mike on the basketball court.

  • Bus rides to YMCA day camp and the death of a counselor named Gabby.

  • Family weekends at Corey Lake in my grandparent’s trailer. Chicken on Sunday and middle of the night visits to “The Castle” outhouse. 

  • Florida vacations to my grandparent’s mobile home in Englewood and Mr. Kauffman doing push-ups. 

  • Walking to school every day and wanting to be a student crossing guard,

  • Tornado drills and related nightmares.

  • Decorating my bike with streamers for the neighborhood parade.

  • Moving to a new school and neighborhood for the sixth grade.