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| 8/30/25 The house I lived in from 1958 to 1984. |
The last time USk Seattle met in Leschi was before the pandemic, so it was good to be back in my childhood ‘hood with the group (read that post
first for more context). Last time, I spent more time reminiscing about and
sketching the Leschi Market, an old-fashioned community grocery store where my
mom shopped. This time I had a different mission:
I’ve long wanted to sketch my childhood home, but whenever I’ve driven by, I’ve seen that the front is mostly obscured by trees. Realizing that the best view is from the back, I hoofed it over to the house where I grew up (above). (Although it seemed like a long, long walk when I was a kid, I realized last Saturday that the distance from home to Leschi Market is only about 10 minutes for adult me.) The large picture window looks out on Lake Washington and sometimes Mt. Rainier (see this post for my childhood context on that). Although the current owners rebuilt the back deck that my father had built (it had become hazardous from disrepair by the time the house was sold), I’m grateful that they have kept the house mostly unchanged on the outside.
Walking back to the market and marina area where the other sketchers were, I kept looking for familiar sights. It wasn’t exactly nostalgic because so much had changed since I lived there, but it was good to see that many of the tallest trees were taller still, and some of the old lakeside apartment buildings were the same (though now turned into condos).
When I got back, I had just enough time to make quick sketches of the marina and the market.
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| 8/30/25 Leschi Marina and Market |
Now that I’ve finally sketched my childhood home, please indulge me in just a bit more reminiscing. I have now completed sketching all the dwellings I have ever lived in – only four! I’ve included the rest below. You can read more about each one in these posts: My first apartment; my second apartment; my current house.
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| My first apartment on upper Queen Anne, 1984 to 1986 |
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| My second apartment on lower Queen Anne, 1986 to 1988 |
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| My house in Maple Leaf since 1988. |
Can't even imagine that few residences. For the longest time, my husband and I moved about every three years, as if he were in the military. No, just unexpected roadblocks to what we thought we were going to do with our lives. We finally ended up in Tacoma for 7 years before starting our residence hopping again (I actually was getting itchy antsy when it dawned on me it'd been three years and the body thought it was time to go again). Four more houses before he died in 2000, and I've lived in 3 places on my own since then. I thought the last one was the last one, but again, circumstances had me looking for a better place. Now I am saying it again - this is it! And it always surprised me when I count up the years since that 2013 move. Maybe I AM here to stay . .
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the good news, though, is that you got rid of stuff along the way, so you have far less stuff to downsize! That's the single biggest issue with having only four residences (and nearly 40 years in the current one) -- no opportunity or incentive to get rid of stuff along the way!
DeleteAbsolutely right. I've noted all my life the difference between residences of people who had been in the same house for decades vs those of people who moved a lot. I could have left more behind at every move, I'm a bit of a saver of "just in case - I might need that later", and let's not talk about my quilting acquisitions and more recently added mixed media/bookmaking supplies, none of which I think I can do without and with the exception of more fabric, keep adding to. I pity the poor person who has to figure out what to do with all my stuff once I'm gone . . . :-)
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