When I want to run away

The Dublin Years 

I lived in the red brick house across from the Dairy Queen in Dublin, PA for 6 years.

 From age 5 to age 11. 

I still remember our phone number. 249-0889.

They were, by far, the most stable years of my entire childhood. 

My dad had his own business and my mom got to be more of a stay at home mom- although she still worked some of the time- and things were somewhat ok. 

I attended Bedminster Elementary with both of my sisters.

Jr went to another elementary school because they had a better special education program. 

I have so many amazing memories of those years. 

Playing outside until it got dark. 

My dad playing catch with us 3 girls for hours. 

The shoelaces in the bike chain incident. 

Being in love with my next door neighbor Kevin. 

Having some of the best missionaries ever. Including the one that would eventually get my dad to join the church- Elder Gibson

My mom would sew us dresses. 

We ate dinner together at the dining room table. 

I took piano lessons.

We got our first computer. 

(which I destroyed by pouring baby powder into it)

My dad's sister, my aunt Robin, lived with us for a little while.

 She always had us do funny skits. 

My parents surprised us with a trip to Disney World. 

I started to fall in love with American history when I went to Jamestown and Gettysburg.

Sleeping at the firehouse the night the barn burned down. 

I remember playing softball.

 Joining a bowing league.

 Trick or treating for hours and hours.

 Watching Disney's Sunday night movie and sleeping in the living room.

 Building forts out of wood.

 Riding our bikes to the IGA.

Watching Girls just want to have Fun over and over one summer. 

My parents took away the TV and I started reading, reading, reading

 A little too much VC Andrews unfortunately.

 I got my stuffed rabbit Peachy.

 I broke my arm roller skating.

My sister Erin and I got baptized together when I was 8 and she was 9.

I played the friar in my 4th grade production of Romeo and Juliet.

 We got sealed as a family in the Washington DC Temple. 

There were hard times too. 

I don't like to think about the hard times.

Especially not the really hard times. 

 So, I hold on to the good times. 

The day my dad explained the cold war to me while we listened to Leningrad on Billy Joel's Storm Front album.

The nights my dad would wake us up at midnight and we would all go down to the Souderton Pizza Hut and help my mom close it down so she could come home and go to bed.

 And we would always listen to 'in your eyes' by Peter Gabriel on the jukebox.

 Whenever I hear it, it takes me back to that place of mopping floors and rolling silverware in the middle of the night. 

The time my mom bought me a sparkly new outfit for my 4th grade Christmas concert. 

My mom getting us lost in Boston while we were site seeing. 

Listening to Neil Diamond and drinking kool aid at my aunt Debbie's house in Allentown.

My parents dressing up and scaring us on purpose. 

My sisters being mad at me because I chose "fairy land pink" as the wall color for our room.

The "michael jackson" room in our basement. And all the random chocolate recipes we would find. 

The end of the season ice cream from Dairy Queen.

My dad turning up his music so loud it would make all the floors in the house shake. 

And a million, billion other memories. 

Lori Ann

p.s.- Next installment- the Michigan Years. AKA "the dark times".   :)