Monday, October 13, 2008

My Kid Landmarks


Since Google Earth has improved it's technology, I thought it was time to revisit my old neighborhood in New Hyde Park, New York - This is where I lived until I was eleven, and we moved to California.  Here's a key to some of my own personal walking tour:

a - This is it...home base!  Though our street was flat, our house had to be the flattest.  Once we had a flash flood and our house was the only one that flooded. I remember looking down into our basement, and discovering that books float.
b - Ridder's Pond.  During that same flash flood, the pond overflowed, and we ended up with a snapping turtle in our backyard.
c - This is where the bus stop to Wickshire School used to be, before it moved across the street.
d - This is the new bus stop.  I don't know why it moved, but we thought it was unfair that we had to deal with the inconvenience of crossing the street.
e - My lemonade stand was usually located here.  I didn't build it into a multi-billion dollar empire.
f - My friend Larry lived here.  He sometimes was my partner in the lemonade business. We usually parted ways over financial issues.
g - I got into a huge screaming argument with Chris on this corner. I don't remember why, exactly, but we ended up yelling "What a friend YOU are!" at each other as we walked away from each other.
h - This is where Chris lived, and where he went when our argument was over.  Notice that we lived over the fence from each other. We built the fence to keep out his St. Bernard, Nard.
i - My Stingray bike was stolen from a bike rack located right here. Larry swore up and down he saw bigger kids with it, and they through it into some flood control channel.  We never turned up any evidence.
j - There's a little police way-station located here.  I remember when they built it.  I thought they build it to catch me.
k - As a kid, I didn't even know this existed.  I still don't know what it is.

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