Up In Smoke

Wow! we are all just a little shocked after getting the news yesterday that the house we grew up in on Bryan Street burned almost to the ground. Strange how something like that makes you feel sad...even though you no longer live there. Fire is just so permanent and final. It is a complete loss. My grandparents owned the house until this last Fall. It was currently empty while some guys flipped it for resale. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the arson investigation. My family moved into the house the day before Valentine's day, the year I was in the 3rd grade. I left there when I got married. (except for a brief 6 month stint in an apartment) My parents moved a few years later.
Here are some special memories that I remember about Bryan Street:

• Mom always having homemade cookies for us on Wednesdays (her afternoon off)
• walking home from school
• playing dog show with Tiny (our cocker spaniel) in the backyard and making her jump the seats to the picnic bench
• sharing one bathroom (I didn't say all the memories were good)
• walking to the Handy Hut to buy candy cigarettes and play smoking them on the way home
• this cool little secret cubby I had in my closet...have no idea why it was there
• watching the Sunday afternoon movie on cold winter days while eating big bowls of canned chili
• sitting in the closet in Jeremy's room one night with Chance, Nanny, and everyone else - while a BIG tornado warning was in effect. Chance and I still laugh at the funny things Nanny said that night!
• reading all of my Nancy Drew mysteries...every one of them!

Here is a video of the fire - seriously it looks scary - I wonder what it felt like to the neighbors to see a house burning so close to you?

http://myhighplains.com/content/fulltext/?cid=45741&shr=addthis

http://www.newschannel10.com/Global/story.asp?S=9930217