Highland Park

Okay, this one is hard. My first real memories take place in Highland Park. Highland Park was considered a rather upscale neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota. My family lived there when I was born. I’m not sure if we actually lived within the boundaries of Highland Park, but our house was on Highland Parkway. The “real” Highland Park” was about a mile South, but my parents always called this their Highland Park home.

Me and my sister Pam in our Highland Park yard

Our home was a very small cape cod style house. I remember it only through pictures. The first few memories are from here, but I have a hard time determining whether they are truly memories or it they are just recollections based upon black and white photographs I’ve seen. One photo is of the home from the front. Another is of me in some sort of kid’s car on the sidewalk. Finally, there is a photo of my parents’ Volkswagen Beetle parked on the street in front of the house.

Besides the photos, I about the only things I can remember are getting scolded by my mother for apparently straying too far away down the block and playing in a sandbox in the back yard. I think there was a fence to keep in the dog(s), but I don’t really remember that. Hopefully, one of my siblings can find one or two of the photos and upload them to this blog!

There is literally nothing else that I remember about that house, the neighborhood, or even anyone else. I don’t remember my father, my sister, Pam (who was just under a year older than me), or any other relatives or neighbors. I don’t even remember our dog, Bos’n, who was obviously around when I was born. I recall hearing stories of not only Bos’n, but possibly a litter of other little boxers that my family may have been involved in raising. I also remember a story about Bos’n getting welts all over his body from eating green apples, so I suspect there may have been an apple tree in the yard.

I’m not sure how long we lived at our Highland house, but it couldn’t have been too long. Most of my early childhood memories are from our home on Beverly Road, my grandparents homes, and Grand Lake. Each of those locations will present many, many more memories, but you I am convinced that we all need to go back to our beginnings in order to figure out where we are going.