I just connected to two new friends via Facebook. Andrea Hansen and Mary Gallo. Andrea found me first. I am not sure how. For half of my brothers and sisters, childhood memories reside in Morgan Hill but for Cathy and I 6397 Mt Ripley Drive, Cypress CA will be and address forever engraved in the memory banks. While I was never really “friends” with either of Andrea or Mary (after all there were girls) hearing from them really brought back some old memories. Memories I whose connections I would have thought had withered away long ago.
Even though Andrea lived right next door and we were the same age we never talked much to each other. It’s not that we didn’t like each other, I just don’t think we thought much about each other one way or the other. This was how it was from grade school to high school. We talked to each other like you do with someone you see in church every Sunday for the past ten years but never really spend time with.
There were a group of us that lived within four houses to the left and right that always hung out and played together. Andrea never participated much. I always assumed she thought herself a little better than the rest of us, but being a dumb kid it didn’t dawn on me until I was much older that both of parents worked and she was allowed to go outside of the house (or let friends in) until her parents got home.
For those of you who can remember the Cypress house. You likely can remember the Hansen’s dogs. They were very into dog shows and also had three or more pugs. Pugs are funny dogs. While most dogs have barks that are loud and alarming, pug barks also sound more like laughing than yelling. Their dogs used to always chase there own tails. Based on Andrea's Facebook page, it looks like she is into the dog show thing herself, but her dogs are much bigger than pugs (not sure what they are). She lives somewhere in the Pheonix area.
Mr. Hansen used to spend many nights sitting in his garage with the door open. He would sit in a folding beach chair drinking beer and watch us kids play street play, hide & seek, etc. He always looked a little intimidating. When I was young, I thought he didn’t trust the neighborhood kids and was keeping his eyes on us. As I got older and had built up a resume of conversations with him, I realized he just enjoyed watching kids play more than watching the junk on TV. No one thought much of the safety of kids playing out in the streets back in those days, but it was probably helpful to have a parent watching over us like that. I know it did help cut down the fights between the kids.
Memories...
