Walking Down Memory Lane….

Or that would be, a visit to my childhood home in Minnetonka, Minnesota!

Last evening we drove to my Uncle Steve’s house to spend the evening and enjoy a dinner with them….

You know how it goes? You are invited to dinner, and you want to bring something. One thing lead to another, and we decided to stop at the Great Harvest bread store in Minnetonka! Which is a few blocks up from where I went to Kindergarten, First Grade, and half of second.

I have such vivid memories of this place! First off….the school itself is right next to a cemetery. Creepy, I know! There is nothing like looking out of your first grade classroom window and seeing tomb stones! ((This put my little 6 year old brain in high gear on many occasion)) And it gets a bit funnier.

The name of the school is Groveland. But we called it Graveland because…well…that’s what it was!

Here I am, 40+ years later….and the school still looks the same!

Have you traveled back to your first school ever? It’s a really strange feeling isn’t it?

A short drive away, was the first house I remember living in…

The street is named "The Strand". We moved here when I was about 5 --- and we only stayed a couple years, but I remember it SO vividly. There are places that I lived much longer…..but I remember the names of my childhood friends, and I’ve tried to find them, but haven’t been successful so far.

Mom was with me and we talked about lots of things…”Remember the lily of the valley that grew under that window?” “I remember planting that tree as a little stick, look how big it’s grown!” “That’s the hill I rode my bike down, and didn’t look both ways and almost got hit by that car!” ((And I was grounded from that brand new birthday bike for 2 weeks after that mishap!))

Mom reminded me of the time I caught a salamander and put it in my little purse…and left it to rot in my closet for 3 weeks. :c/

We talked about the time that we banked up the snow around the perimeter of the little concrete patio, and then using a hose from inside the house through the kitchen window to cover the patio with layers of water over ice to freeze and freeze and freeze until we had our own skating rink in our back yard. It seemed huge at the time I was 6 --- it’s just a tiny patio!

I remember the sand box and swing set and I remember the rhubarb that grew and how we would pick it and dip it in sugar to chew on it. My mouth is watering just thinking of it!

Mom and I at the end of my old driveway, 40+ years later ---My bedroom was the window you can’t see to the far right of the house…it was a corner bedroom and two windows were in the corner…one on the side of the house, and one on the front..and I remember lacy sheer “cross over” kinds of curtains at the window…it was a princess room. I loved it!

Another old memory icon is THIS place:

When I was little, Snuffy’s was just a little drive in, across the street and down a bit from where it is now. We loved it so much, we named our old black lab dog Snuffy too! This place is always hopping, great burgers, terrific malts and milk shakes, and there is old Minnetonka memorabilia hanging all over the inside….

It was a great afternoon for hitting just a few of these locations that meant so much to me growing up. Sometimes thinking back to those early years seems like it must have been someone else's life…not mine. And then sometimes I feel like I am still that little 6 yr old girl with the blue rhinestone cat eye glasses and the twin pony tails and the missing teeth riding her new bike down the hill and forgetting to look both ways.

We are leaving for the airport in about 20 minutes so I better end this here and get a move on! I am SO glad I came. This couple of days has really filled my heart with so many things….it’s been priceless!