Feels Like Home

I decided to open up an old blog to see if anyone liked it better this time around.  The premise of "Take This Tune" is that I will post a song and lyric and invite people to tell me a story that is stimulated by either the music or the lyric.  This week it is "Feels Like Home" from Randy Newman's musical "Faust".  You can hear and see the prompt on the above link.

My reason for the choice is that I have been working on the genealogy again and the one person I'm having a lot of trouble with is me.  You see I don't have a "home town".  In fact, many of the houses where I lived have been wiped off the face of the earth and replaced by airports, business districts, parks and schools.  The 1940 census was just released and is currently being indexed.  This was before I arrived.  The 1950 won't be out until I am almost 80 and I may or may not make it to the 1960.  That means finding all these places will be from memory, city directories, and Google maps.  So let's just take the first 18 years of - Feels Like Home (Not) and you can see why this particular song stirs a few emotions.

Los Angeles, Walla Walla, Oakland, Fresno, Boulder City, Westchester, Fowler, Pasadena, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Hawthorne, La Puente, Gardena, Torrance, Anaheim,  Hollywood, Redondo Beach, Fresno, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Tucson, West Covina, San Carlos, and Burlingame

Now all of the above is a list of cities lived in (that I can easily remember) from the day I was born until the first year I was married.  It does not include summer side trips and temporary stays of a month or so.  Each city  represents a different house and in some cases multiple houses in the same city as there were repeats in some of these towns.  Almost none of it was with parents, so while not ill treated, there was always the feeling of being a "guest".

2725 W. Vernon, Los Angeles (The apartments are over the businesses) Where the parents lived when I was born.

9012 Earhart, Westchester, CA is now a park on the edge of LAX

216 Sonoma, Chowchilla is still there, but there isn't a picture

San Marino Hall School for Girls, Pasadena, CA

6129 W. 78th Street, Westchester, CA

841 M Street, Fresno, CA used to have an apartment

1132 P Street, Fresno, CA is now City Hall

712 Robertson Blvd., Chowchilla, CA

The next ten years are a rather fuzzy mess and I'm still searching for addresses and pictures.

1126 Broadway, Burlingame, Ca - Up the stairs to the second floor where I lived when my son was born almost 19 years after the first picture.

Every week when playing the "what if" game with the lottery draw, the idea of buying a home flickers across the brain.  The only thing I need now is a place that feels like home.