Childhood: Germantown Memories

I impressed myself about five years ago, when I returned to Germantown and could actually drive to the places I knew when I was little.  My parents and I, and eventually my sister, lived in a condo complex in Germantown from 1982 to 1985.

Since I don't have a ton of memories from these early days, and I can't place them exactly in a timeline, it seems easier to just throw them all in one post and edit to add when I think of more.

Here we go!

We lived on the second story of a condo complex at the end nearest the lake.  It was two bed, one bath.  The path to the unit would get flooded during heavy rains.  My sister and I would go and play in the puddle that formed.

My friend Missy lived in the same complex, though not in our building.  One day, she and I were jumping on my full-size bed (no toddler or kid beds for me!), and she pushed me off.  I fell on my arm.  A few days later, my mom noticed a bump on it, and took me to the doctor.  It turned out that I had a hairline fracture.  They wrapped it up with an ace bandage and gave me a yellow patterned sling.

I remember the day I learned to tie my shoes.  I was 5 and wearing blue Asics.

We ate dinner around the dining table next to the kitchen.  One night we had fish cooked in the brown, square microwave dish that my parents still use often.  I got a few bones in my piece and didn't want to eat fish for another, oh, twenty years.

My dad worked from 5 to 3 (ish), and would pick me up from day care on his way home.  When we got home, we had a tradition of having coffee (not sure if this was real coffee that he gave me or not).

There was a bad storm one night in which lightning struck a barn a few miles from our home.  I remember going out on the wet metal balcony with my dad and hearing the sirens of the firefighters.

On another summer evening, there was severe weather approaching.  We went across the way and watched the news with another family who had a basement we could go into if things got bad.  I watched the lightning outside with the adults.  Someone called it "shotgun lightning".  I still think I misheard something.  Thankfully, nothing hit us.  This might have been the same night as the previous memory, but I'm not sure.

There was one babysitter in particular that I remember.  She was an older lady and must have been watching me during the day instead of me going to day care.  One day, I was swinging my legs between two couches.  She didn't like this and smacked my bottom.  She had a son, and we gave him banana stickers and socks for a birthday present.  I also attended some kind of graduation with her.  I snuck away and played under a big bush because I was bored.

We went to the library a lot.  I liked the step stools they used, because they shrunk down and locked when you stepped on them, but rose up when you took your weight off it.  I played with them quite a bit.

My parents and I would go for bike rides around town.  They had a kid carrier that attached behind the seat that I would sit in.  I remember cruising past the cemetery.

I also remember a 4th of July parade.

We had a dog named Sam.  I would help my dad take him for a walk along the road between the condo and the main road.  There was a baseball field we would walk past.


Back then, they had little candies that were like Tic Tacs but fruity, and brightly colored.  I decided to shove one of these up my nose.  I think it was a purple one.  Thankfully, I managed to get it out.

My dad had a convention in DC when I was almost 5.  We were driving out there, and to make the trip better, my mom had a surprise for us.  She told me to go to the back of the car, where there were two Care Bears waiting for my sister and me.  I got Bedtime Bear, and she got Tenderheart Bear.  On the drive, we stayed at a hotel whose pool was under renovation and not filled.  I don't remember much else about the trip despite having many pictures to jog my memory.

I had a little Snoopy fishing pole that I used to fish in the pond by our house.  I don't remember ever catching anything, but a neighbor did.  He put the little fish in a bucket.  The next day, I went over to see the fish and they were all dead and floating in there.  I think this was my first exposure to death.

More to come...