I don't have anything exciting to post today, so I'll just tell you a story.
It was 1977 and we were living a comfortable suburban life in a nice home on the Willamette River just outside of Portland Oregon.
My father was an insurance adjuster and my mother stayed home, but was far from being your average homemaker.
~My crazy mother is a topic for another day~
We lived in a small friendly neighborhood where everybody knew everybody else and the kids all played and rode bikes until it was time to come in for dinner.
Sounds good huh?
~My crazy mother is a topic for another day~
We lived in a small friendly neighborhood where everybody knew everybody else and the kids all played and rode bikes until it was time to come in for dinner.
Sounds good huh?
I guess it was to good to last.
My sister and I had an idea that there was trouble in paradise as our Mom had moved out of the house a time or two, but the big surprise would come wrapped in the decision that our parents made to save the marriage by moving to a small Island in Washington State.
The plan was to build a log cabin on five acres in the woods, and really the only hitch in that plan was that we were not a family of builders.
My Dad built a boat in the garage once, but it wasn't a houseboat.
After doing some research our parents bought a house that would be delivered on a truck and put together like Lincoln Logs.
Once it was figured out what we were going to live in, the question was where would we live while we built it.
Somehow it was decided that living in tents would be a good idea.
We had one large wall tent where our parents slept and then each of us girls had a tent of our own.
We hauled water in jugs, used an outhouse enclosed by trees and showered and did laundry at the trailerpark in town.
There was no power, no generator and no t.v, but about halfway through the summer we had a telephone installed.
It hung on a tree.
As fall started to turn cold and the house wasn't ready for us to move into we packed up again and moved to town.
My Mom and Dad, the three of us girls and two dogs moved into a one bedroom one bathroom apartment.
To this day I'm not sure which was worse, the apartment or the tents.
At least in the apartment we didn't have to drive anywhere to shower and we could turn on a light.
We ended up moving into the house by Christmas, but even then we only had wood stoves for heat AND for cooking, we had to climb a ladder to get to our bedrooms that were separated by sheets hanging from the ceiling and our phone was still on a tree.
It wasn't too long before my parents ended up divorcing.
My Dad left the Island and moved into a nice apartment in the city with running water, electricity and an indoor phone.
My Mom stayed in that house in the woods for a few more years and then sold it and moved onto a boat.
Of course there was a LOT more life packed in to those years then what I have just told you, these are just some of the highlights ; )
My Dad built a boat in the garage once, but it wasn't a houseboat.
After doing some research our parents bought a house that would be delivered on a truck and put together like Lincoln Logs.
Once it was figured out what we were going to live in, the question was where would we live while we built it.
Somehow it was decided that living in tents would be a good idea.
We had one large wall tent where our parents slept and then each of us girls had a tent of our own.
We hauled water in jugs, used an outhouse enclosed by trees and showered and did laundry at the trailerpark in town.
There was no power, no generator and no t.v, but about halfway through the summer we had a telephone installed.
It hung on a tree.
As fall started to turn cold and the house wasn't ready for us to move into we packed up again and moved to town.
My Mom and Dad, the three of us girls and two dogs moved into a one bedroom one bathroom apartment.
To this day I'm not sure which was worse, the apartment or the tents.
At least in the apartment we didn't have to drive anywhere to shower and we could turn on a light.
We ended up moving into the house by Christmas, but even then we only had wood stoves for heat AND for cooking, we had to climb a ladder to get to our bedrooms that were separated by sheets hanging from the ceiling and our phone was still on a tree.
It wasn't too long before my parents ended up divorcing.
My Dad left the Island and moved into a nice apartment in the city with running water, electricity and an indoor phone.
My Mom stayed in that house in the woods for a few more years and then sold it and moved onto a boat.
Of course there was a LOT more life packed in to those years then what I have just told you, these are just some of the highlights ; )
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