We were rich in the American way - our money spread out in our possessions and our debt. When I was fifteen, my parents started downsizing. That's what they called it. My father hired auctioneers to come out and sell most everything we had in the garage and barns - and it was a lot of tools. Stuff I didn't really care about, but my brothers seemed to be walking around kind of depressed all day -sickened that a $100 level sold for $15 and amazed that left over display windows from my father's work sold at all. (They were junk as far as my father was concerned).
We even sold our house. Unfortunately, a little too early because in ten years time the property price had tripled so that I'm unsure any of us could or would buy it back - like we all said we would.
When our property sold I was fifteen, almost sixteen. My parents hadn't found new place to buy yet, and so they decided to rent a townhouse in Stillwater. It was a dramatic change in scenery from country living, fields, and dirt roads to the middle of town - pavement, condominiums and shared spaces. Our dog couldn't adjust. She ran away, got lost, and hit by a car before we sent her back to the country to live with my grandmother.
I loved it - I loved anything new. I loved being able to walk to stores, being so close to school and friends. I loved having pavement and new places to explore. I biked everywhere. I was able to bike to local elementary school for basketball practice with a coach and I had big dreams of playing Varsity. I loved having neighbors too - even if they weren't my age. To the one side lived a girl a year or two younger than me - she was drop dead gorgeous - she was already 5' 11", slender, wavy blonde hair and make up to suit a 25 year old model but with the tentative personality of a mouse. It didn't matter though, most were intimidated by her beauty. That summer I seemed to home a lot - and she was not, it didn't matter though - her little twin brothers were more my style. Charlie and Cole were 6 years old, blonde hair and blue eyes and full of mischief. I babysat them often and played with them most days. Tony was 12 or 13 and he lived on the other side of us and there may have been one more boy who occasionally joined us. Tony was the one who got me into roller hockey. I got a pair of cheap roller blades and a plastic stick so I could keep up with him when we played.I played roller hockey the entire summer with the neighborhood kids and became extremely fit for soccer.
Our row of townhouses was beige with brown trim. New and clean, two floors built over a garage with the front door off to the left of each town house, repeating a pattern until the end. In the back of the garage was a door to our windowless kitchen. I remember the linoleum floors distinctly because I dropped a plate on the floor once and the linoleum broke - not the plate. The kitchen was single lane of cupboards and an island with a sink that looked over the dining room table. Rounding the kitchen's corner at the island there was a bathroom, then past the dining room table the room opened up into our living room. It was strange seeing our old furniture in this new home. The living room paralleled the garages's length and thus had one large window in the front looking out. The back of the room had a set of stairs that climbed several steps before taking a ninety degree turn to finish the climb to the top. The second floor had three bedrooms and I can't remember how many bathrooms. Sherah and I shared a room again, Aaron and Josh shared the smaller, and my parents had the Master bedroom which I think had a bathroom but I'm not sure.
Seth had moved down to Kansas City at eighteen so he never lived here with us. We were entering our sophomore year in high school and Josh his senior. Aaron had a bunk bed in his room - I don't remember when we got bunk beds - but it was hardly used. Josh moved out at some point and lived with his girlfriend. Josh always brought the drama into our house and our school. Living with one in a long string of crazy girlfriends to follow over the next X many years. "X" still the representing number because he has yet to settle. Somehow, in his stead, we had his classmate living with us - Wade Hoffman. Looking back at it now, I guess it was quite strange having Wade live with us, and stranger that I remember very little about it. (Did he share a room with Aaron? Weren't my parents nervous about having an 18 year old guy in the house? What was wrong with his family?) I suppose in high school we seemed to be in constant motion - busy with school, sports and jobs so that none of us were home much - and living "in town" put us right in the middle of everything.
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