A Memory

 I still can remember when my family moved to Washington.  I have certain images about it.  When we stayed at Uncle Jim's.  His house was filled with mosquitoes.  The yellow van he had, that my brother, David and I pretended to drive.  There are some pictures.  Or, when Mom and Dad arrived at Grams and Pops.  My parents had gone up to Washington for an interview.  When they left, they had my brother and me stay at Grams and Pops.  When they got back, they announced we were moving.  I thought of how we had moved before.  So, I thought we were going to move down the street again.  Then, I remember my brother saying, "Cascade Mountains!"  Texas didn't have mountains, how you think of them, I thought.  We were moving to a place with mountains.  We were not going to be in Texas I realized.  I remember also, how we stayed in a cabin.  I think it was in Wyoming.  Maybe Montana.  We also saw the Little House On the Prairie in Kansas.  We also got to see the Rockie Mountains on our way to Everett, Washington.  Or how we stopped at a park to rest for a while.  We drove up in a blue Chrysler Liberin.  Mom put film on the windows to protect us from the heat.  It was August.  Then, to, I also remember taking a tour of the Grand Cooley Dam.  They had a ride and everything, where we saw the entire dam.  I think we have pictures of when we were at the Grand Cooley Dam.  I remember Dad saying something, I cannot remember what he said.  

I remember when we first arrived at our house in Everett.  The house was painted blue.  We rented it from Clint.  It had three stories, including a basement.  I had never seen a basement before.  I remember the basement was cool.  Clint had a truck.  Dad began working for Boeing the next day.  I also remember the Graves family.  We met them at church, I remember my parents, and them talking outside the steps on the sidewalk.  Or the deaf tone that played.  The smell of pine, and seeing pine needles for the first time.  I do not remember pine needles where we were in Texas.  Or, our first trip to the Seattle Aquarium.  Or, when the moving truck came and brought our stuff.  The Graves helped us unload everything from the trailer.  The truck had two trailers, dropped one off and left.  The trailer had the tan colored Volkswagen Rabbit inside. 

Because we came up from Texas, I guess, I remember it was August 25th 1989 when we arrived.  Right before fall.  David, my brother and me, would go and sit in the sun.  So, even during the summer it felt chilly.  But it was so neat, to me because we were in a new place.  So, in my mind Everett is always a new place.  I have even more memories from when we first arrived.  My Mom signed us up for Iwanna and David's Sunday school teacher Mrs. Love.  Like, the first snow we saw.  Or when Mr. Graves took us to see the mountains for the first time.  He was so excited for us to see it.  It was snowy in Everett and snowy in the mountains.  But we found out later it did not always snow in Everett.  But it was so neat sometimes, when it did.