Memories of Washington

During the years I was a kid, my parents had a few places in north central Washington state. I can remember the first place they got, a 40 acre ranch tucked up in the middle of a valley that they later let my oldest sister take over the payments on so her family had a home to live in.

We started construction on the house in the fall, working as a family to build it, and moved into the house on Christmas Eve by putting up visqueen to keep the snow out. It was just a small house, around 20'x20' with a half loft upstairs where the bedrooms were, but it was built by us and was home. The last time I looked on Google maps it still stands where we built it.

I gathered Mother's Day Flowers in Washington as the winter gave way to springtime, and as spring turned to summer we would go swimming at the local lakes. I learned to swim in Washington, and to ride horses.

Someday I want to go back and visit the house we built, see what it looks like now and what of the original structure is still there. I already know that most of the pennies that were placed on the footings were taken either by my brother or nephews, but there are likely still a few pennies under the house from when it was built in 1980. It was worth a nickle for every 1980 penny my brother and I could find for our parents so they had one for each post top on the foundation when they laid the house foundation.