Let's go back in time.

Question of the Day: What's the most memorable building in which you've lived?

99 Lakeside Drive in Shrewsbury, MA (you know where it is...Edgemere, off Route 20) was where I lived from age 5 to age 11. I call it where I grew up - even though I lived in so many places in my life. So many important things in my life happened while I lived there. Plus, it was the happiest time of my life. My bedroom walls were covered in posters out of Bop or Big Bopper or Teen Beat and other such publications. Mostly, it was New Kids on the Block, but there were a few Corey Haim, Jonathan Brandis, Tiffany and Paula Abdul posters. I had a Rainbow Brite canopy bed, then a waterbed, and a fully stocked entertainment center (tv, cable, a Tandy that used the tv as a monitor, Nintendo, Atari, a top-loader VCR, stereo and a phone). I was SUCH a spoiled brat - but I had so much fun! My brother and I would play board games a lot because my mother worked nights and slept during the afternoon when we were home after school. We played Crossfire a bunch, Trouble, Mr. Game Show (remember him???)... On nice days, we'd just go hang out in the neighborhood roller skating or on our bikes or something. It amazes me how much freedom we had for being so young. When my brother was 5, he was allowed to just wander off into the neighborhood on his own and play with his friends. These days, if you send a 5 year old out on their own you're asking for trouble. Of course, he did almost get kidnapped once a few houses down from us but he and his little friend had the brains to run the other way and get home. I had a play room in the basement with a record player and a truckload of Barbies. I didn't like the basement there. Word around the neighborhood was that someone was murdered in that basement. When we first moved there, I remember the other kids saying, "You live in the BLUE house???", like it was the scariest place ever or something. One day, my cousin Maria and I were sitting in the basement and I SWEAR we saw a white misty blob fly across the other side of the basement and we screamed and ran upstairs. Maria, do you remember that??? After that, I was kind of scared to hang out down there because it flew right through my play room. There was an upright piano in the dining room that came with the house. I taught myself how to play on that and would play songs at Christmas or on birthdays. When we moved, we left the piano there :o( My brother's bedroom was half wallpapered in Mack truck wallpaper and the other half was just sheetrock, so we were allowed to write and draw all over it. I wish we had taken pictures before we left... There was a video store down on Route 20 that me and my friend Amy would walk to and rent cheesy horror flicks. I remember seeing Night of the Demons and it scared the crap out of me, but I still kept renting horrors. We watched Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, all the usual ones, but we got some pretty ridiculous crap also. There was NO better neighborhood for trick-or-treating. There were so many kids and plenty of houses, you could easily fill a pillowcase to overflowing. You needed an adult, or a wagon to carry it by the end of the night. There was a puddle that would form in our front yard that was a good 15 feet across that we could ice skate on and a huge ditch behind the house ( I mean HUGE) that was awesome for forts. We had tree houses and swinging ropes and I was a wicked tomboy. I once tore my leg open on a rusty nail...I had my legs wrapped around the tree and was going to let go and swing out on a rope but when I grabbed the rope and tried to let go, I was stuck to the tree by my inner thigh. It was a good 4-5 inch gash and I could see right into my leg. It was disgusting. Wow, I can ramble. Okay, I'm done for now.

About a year ago, I drove through the neighborhood and the house was for rent. I would have loved to live there. I would still love to live in that house. Of course, it would never be the same...you can't go back. It's not going to make me a kid again and it won't provide the oblivion that I miss so much.