13. Describe Your Childhood Home

My father actually still lives in my childhood home so this one is quite easy!

I grew up in a Jubilee in the Highland Park section of Levittown, PA. The house has four bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. There is an attached garage and a good-sized fenced-in backyard. The front yard is perfectly sized for children to run around without having to play in the street.

Now that the technical details are done, here's the fun stuff!

In the backyard, we had a chestnut tree. (I believe my father has since removed it.) For those of you that don't know, chestnuts don't come in a ready-to-roast-on-an-open-fire state. Oh no. Chestnuts come in a spiky ready-to-kill state. You have to risk life and limb to open those suckers to get to the actual nut part. As a result, our backyard was frequently filled with the devil fruit. Running around in bare feet was an act of insanity. We had a Slip N' Slide for one whole summer before the damned things ruined it. Yeah. I hate chestnuts.

The front yard used to have a huge oak tree. My father had painted the trunk white, though I don't remember exactly why. I seem to recall something about bugs. Anyway, for a little while, we had a tree swing tied to it. It also played "Home Base" to many games of tag. This tree was removed many years ago due to disease. I mourned the loss of that tree. It was awesome. (Much better than the stupid chestnut tree.)

Despite having four bedrooms and only four members of the family, my younger sister and I frequently shared a room. When we were small, we shared the small room downstairs next to my parents' room. When we were older, we moved upstairs to share the larger bedroom. (While that room is awesomely huge, it has sloped walls. One can't stand up straight to lean on a wall...unless you are like three feet tall. It made furniture placement a pain.) At some point, I moved across the hall to the smaller upstairs bedroom. I don't have a lot of memories there so I don't think it lasted very long.

The house actually has not changed much in 30*cough* years. It is still filled with many funtastic 70s things like dark blue carpeting in the upstairs bedroom. I believe the kitchen cabinets are still avocado green. Maybe one day I can talk my father into updating the house a bit more. Then again, maybe pigs really will sprout wings and fly.