Places we lived (1967-1978)

All places are in Ames except number 8. Number 1 and 2 not listed for the moment. All the structures listed here are still extant as residences as of 2025. 

I don't feel bad that we moved so much. A couple days ago I tried to make a list of why we left various places, but it is incomplete. Everything from number 6 (803 13th street) onward is clear, but 3, 4, and 5  are vague or unknown. In some cases it may have been some kind of dispute with our landlord, financial or otherwise. 

Moving was just something we did often. I thought of it as normal. We'd box up our things and carry them to a new place. Many things would get thrown out each time, so among other things, it was a way of keeping our possessions pared down.

I didn't like leaving friends behind, but I usually didn't mind being the new kid in school (four different elementary schools) because I was always the smartest kid in class. Being the smartest kid meant other smart kids wanted to be my friend. I never had a problem making new friends.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of moving so often is that it supercharged my ability to track memories. So long as I know where a certain memory happened, I can usually place it in time as well, at least within a given year. My sister and I do this. "We were living in (fill in the blank)"

3. 2304 Ferndale Av. (1967-1968) Duplex. Earliest memories of a place. Earliest memory of a dream. Kate was born while we lived there.

4. 2228 Melrose Av. (1968-1970) Duplex. Learned to read and to ride a bike. 

5. 627 6th Street (1970). Duplex. An old house in the old part of town, one block from Downtown. I started kindergarten at Roosevelt Elementary.

6. 803 13th Street (1970-Aug 1971). Duplex. Anne was born while we lived there.

7. A-1 Eastwood Apartments, E. 7th Street (Aug 1971 to early 1972) A rent-controlled complex where we moved after Anne was born. I got my own room. I started first grade there.

8. 907 Fargo Av, Spirit Lake. Old free-standing house. (early 1972 to early 1973).We left Ames for a year because my father got a job in the little town of Spirit Lake in northwest Iowa.  I finished first grade and started second grade there. 

9. 925 Garfield Ave (early 1973 to late 1973). Duplex. We moved back to Ames. I finished 2nd grade and went to 3rd there at Sawyer Elementary.

10. 151-A University Village. (1974) Married student housing. My dad went back to ISU to finish his degree so we were eligible for married student housing for the first time since 1967.

11. 161-A University Village (1974 to summer 1975). We located to a nearby unit because of issues with our neighbors. Just a hundred feet away from previous unit but a much better experience. 

12. 1104 28th Street (summer 1975 to August 1978). Duplex. Dad graduated ISU at last and we left married student housing for good. It was right in back of the Mall, which felt like an amusement park to us. We stayed there three years, which seemed like forever. I went to fifth and sixth grade at Northwood Elementary, and also 7th Grade at Welch Junior High.