"Welcome to Portland, Oregon"

“Welcome to Portland, Oregon”

That is the announcement the pilot just made. I was 12, and I just arrived in my new home.

Yesterday, I was a carefree kid at summer camp in California, about to return to where I thought my home was, which was Modesto, Ca. A Lot happened while I was away at camp. Today, I landed at Portland, Oregon, my New home.
Yup! My World just got interesting. My family moved out of state while I was at summer camp!

(See the blog http://enterwithanopenmindorclosedeyes.blogspot.com/2011/09/surprise-your-family-moved-out-of-state.html )

The events that led to my family moving to Oregon were not a surprise. What was surprising was that it actually happened, and suddenly, too! We had come to believe it would not.

My Dad designed and built the 9-1-1 emergency system which is used nation-wide now. Many of you do not remember when 9-1-1 did not exist for emergency calls. Prior to dialing 9-1-1, there was a list of phone numbers posted by the phone for each emergency agency. There was a separate number for police, for fire, and for ambulance. Each system had their own dispatch center, instead of what we now know as an all-in-one center. The individual agencies would contact the other agencies to attempt to coordinate needed services. As you can imagine, this was not efficient, and often left plenty of room for error.

In the 1970’s, using his background, and education in communications, phone companies, computers, military, and emergency services, my Dad helped develop a universal system for a one-call emergency dispatch system. This is what the 9-1-1 system is. A Person calls one number, and that dispatch center handles all dispatches for all emergency services needed. He was well-known, respected, and in high demand as communities across America started adapting the new 9-1-1 centers. He often traveled to train and assist others in getting their systems started, and learn the details. Often many communities would send their people to where he was already building a system. They would learn, and take those skills back home to their own community to implement. The system was expanding rapidly. My dad was always busy, always traveling, and in extreme high demand. To us, that was just normal. That was his job, and where he was dedicated.

We understood how he needed to travel, and how important this was. At the time, we lived in San Jose, California. This was our community, our home, our lives. As you can imagine, once an area is up and running with the new system, he would have worked himself right out of a job. He had to keep expanding to newer areas. For a while, he was able to just keep working outward from where we lived in San Jose. In 1978 there was no longer anything local for him, so we had to move. We moved 90-miles away to a new town, called Modesto, California. It was the middle of the school year when we moved. (At the time, I was convinced that the REAL Reason we moved was because Mom did not approve of my new “Girlfriend”. I was 10, and in the fifth-grade. Jenny was a redhead, and she had recently taught me how to pop my knuckles. Mom did not like this idea at all! Shortly after this, is when we moved.)
Moving to Modesto was the first time since the age of two that we had moved. So, this was a new experience for us kids. It was still close-enough to our old home, friends, and community in the San Jose area. We were still able to stay connected to what was familiar, and where we had our roots. We often drove the 90-miles to stay involved.
Dad’s work and travel continued while we lived in Modesto. After two years there, he was completely out of work in that region. People in Portland, Oregon were needing his skills, and made him an offer to move up there. He loaded up a few things in his van, and off he went by himself. Mom and Dad told us we all were moving to Portland, but for now it was just him.

They listed our house for sale, and often Mom would fly-up to help Dad look for a house in Portland. We packed much of our house, and just kept living in Modesto. Dad got a small apartment. After school was out, Dad came back down with his van, and took another load. This time, my brother, Jeff, also went up with him. So, now dad and Jeff were living in Portland. My sister (Jodi), my Mom, and I stayed in Modesto, along with the dog, and cat, too! Mom had stopped going to Portland to look for housing, and left it up to Dad. Meanwhile, it seemed our house was not going to sell. They insisted we would live like this until the house sold. Jodi and I were not unhappy about this, because it was peaceful. For many years, it had seemed Mom and Dad were heading for divorce. Jeff was a holy-terror, and this was the first time in years it was peaceful at home.

We packed as much of the house as we could, while still leaving enough out to live in it. After many more months, Dad had not yet found a house in Portland, and our California home was not selling, either. Mom finally got a new realtor with the hopes of actually selling before the upcoming school-year started again. She wanted to get us moved, and start fresh at the new school at the beginning, not in the middle.

Once mid-August came around, it looked as though we were not going to move. Mom and Dad would stay separated. Jeff would stay in Portland with Dad, and the rest of us would not move. Jodi and I got registered at the schools in Modesto, thinking we were going to stay. Then it was time for my already scheduled summer camp. Mom drove me to San Jose so I could catch the camp-bus at the YMCA we belonged to. I went off to camp, and expected that next week when I returned, Mom would pick me up, and then it would only be another week until school started.

I was completely unaware of what was happening the week I was at camp. (I was at camp. That meant no worries.) Once the camp bus returned to The Y, Mom was not there. Instead, I was picked-up by my Grandma. She took me to her house without any word of what was happening. She was calm, smiling, and that gave me all the reassurance that nothing was wrong. It was not uncommon to spend time at Grandma’s. I just thought Mom would meet me there. No worries, right? That night at dinner, Grandpa gave me an envelope with a one-way ticket to Portland. Once I had looked at the ticket, Grandma had on her best smile, and said “Surprise! Your family moved out of state while you were at summer camp!” This was not good. My mind was going a million directions. (I already posted the full details of what happened in this blog: http://enterwithanopenmindorclosedeyes.blogspot.com/2011/09/surprise-your-family-moved-out-of-state.html )So, how did all this suddenly turn upside-down for me? What Happened?

My Dad and Jeff were out driving, looking for housing. They stopped at a garage sale, where they noticed a sign stating the house was for sale. (it was a small “for sale” sign stapled to the house.) My dad joking said he would buy the house. Turns out the joke was on him! The house was already vacant because the owners had to move to Texas. It was left for the neighbors to take care-of. They decided to use the empty garage for a garage sale. They got Dad in touch with the owner, and the sale was almost immediate, because they needed to get it sold.
At the same time that Dad was buying this house, our new realtor in California found a buyer for our house. That new buyer wanted to get in right away, so made Mom an offer she could not refuse. So, while Dad was buying a house without even talking to Mom about it, Mom was selling our house with ever talking to him about it! They flew Jeff back down to Modesto to help with all the last-minute stuff. They hired a moving company to come load all our stuff into a big moving truck, and drive it to our new home in Portland. They arranged to have Grandma and Grandpa get me on a plane to Portland.

So I went from camp, to Grandma’s, then put on a plane from San Jose to Portland. On the way to the airport, Grandma informed me that Dad would be meeting me at the Portland airport. Mom, Jeff, Jodi, the cat, and a large dog were driving to Portland. While in the plane, I often looked at all the tiny cars below to see if I could spot Mom’s little yellow car. I really could not imagine that any of them in the car were happy right now. All of them, plus their luggage were crammed into Mom’s 1976 Datsun F-10 hatchback. Those are tiny little cars, and that seems like a long drive, especially with My brother, and the pets in there. That, at least, made me glad I was flying. But at that moment, it was about the only happy thing I knew. My world had just been twisted, and turned in way too many ways to be happy about. I did not get to say goodbye to anyone in Modesto, or even know if all my stuff was packed, and being moved. I went to camp without a care in the world. The only thing I knew was that I had now had a new home.

“Welcome to Portland, Oregon.”
Dad greeted me at the gate with a hand-shake and a big smile. (There was no hugging in our family… a handshake was all ya got.) We went to his van, and I asked for a map of Portland. I wanted to know all I could about my sudden new home. He told me our new address, and that was all I needed. It was south of Portland, so my first impression of Portland streets was upside-down. (maps are printed with north at the top, and I wanted to see the streets in the same direction we were traveling.) That day, I literally got a full-understanding of how Portland was laid-out. I love maps, and always look around at the surroundings. When we were about five miles from our new home, we stopped at a store. He pointed across the valley to the hill. That was where our home was. I could see the details on the map, plus in the land ahead of me, and had a great understanding of my new community layout. I got to tell him when, and where to turn. (He already knew where he was going, but this was good for me.) We went to our new house, and he already had a key, so we went in and scoped it all out. It was two-story, but from the street, it looked like one-story. I had never seen a house like this before. It was built in the hill, so the top-floor was actually at ground-level. That was the main floor of the house. It had the garage, living room, kitchen, dining room, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and lots of windows with the most wonderful view ever! We could even see Mt. Hood, and Mt. St. Helens! This was 1980, and it had just had the big eruption on May 18th of this year. Today, my first-ever view of it, there was a plume of steam-cloud. Awesome!! The house had a deck that wrapped around most of the backside, and overlooked the entire yard. Weird. We entered this house on the ground level, and this deck was high off the ground. Then we explored the downstairs of the house. It was a kind-of mystery-place to me. We entered on the ground-level, but went downstairs, and discovered more windows with views. Funny, the downstairs was underground, yet it was not. I still had to discover the way the hill was cut around the house. There were two bedrooms, one bathroom, a huge utility-room, a Really Giant all-purpose room, a furnace room, and a hidden place under the stairs! We went out the sliding-door to explore the back yard. It was Huge!

Then Dad explained that we won’t be moving-in until the moving-van arrives in a few more days. He told me Mom, Jeff, Jodi, and the animals were taking the slow-drive, and stopping along the way, so they could relax some, and we all would not all be crammed into his tiny apartment. He took me to see his work, and meet his coworkers, then to his apartment. I got to relax at his apartment for a couple of days. He worked. Then Mom, Jeff, Jodi, and The Pets all arrived. Our moving van got delayed, and for some reason we could not go into our new house, yet. So ALL of us, plus the pets had to cram into Dad’s tiny apartment. That was a horrible two days. When our moving-van was finally going to arrive the next day, we loaded everything up in Dad’s van to go to our new home. It took a couple of trips. We stayed the night in our new home.

The morning our Movers were going to arrive, We walked down the hill to Elmer’s for breakfast. Then as we walked back up the hill, we met the movers, and they backed-down our culdesac street to be set to unload. NOW I Was Getting Excited! Finally. We watched anxiously as each item was unloaded. It was tedious. There was an inventory check-list. Every single item was stickered with a number, and we had to check-off each item as it came off. That became my job, partly because I had not gotten to see everything get loaded, and because I would not let a single thing get past me without verifying the number, and checking it off the list. I Kept every single sticker. I watched eagerly as each item was unloaded. I Knew what I had left behind, and I watched, and looked for every single item that was supposed to be in our new home, too. It was chaotic, as the movers were directed by Mom and Dad for where each item went in the house. I was amazed at how they had built crates out of wood around many of our items. Yay! Free wood for me! I could build a fort!! As more and more items came off the truck, I watched. I kept track. So far, it seemed that in fact everything did make it to Oregon. This was good for me to be able to see. Of course, many of my own things were boxed, and I had no idea, yet, about those. I decided that I was gathering too many stickers to hold onto, so I dedcided that the freezer in the garage was an ideal place to line them up. It did not take long before that freezer was totally covered on all sides with neon-orange Allied-moving numbers. This amused me, but at the same time I already know the chore I had created, because I would eventually have to remove every one of those.

After the moving van left, we walked down the hill, to register for our new school, which was starting the very next day. I was starting 7th grade. Jeff was starting 8th grade. We were going to be at the same junior high, and I was already hating that idea. Jodi was lucky. She was starting the 6th grade, at the school behind the junior high. She at least was starting where she would be welcomed before going on to junior high. I was starting junior high where four other schools came into. This meant that not only would I be a new kid, but everyone else would already have their groups from the school they had just come from, and I would be excluded from all of those. This sucked. A new home, new school, new people, new neighbors, all so sudden! School started only one day after we got here, and I did not know a thing about my world.

After registering for school, I went home to start unpacking. Life was about to get turned upside-down in a real big way!

Welcome to Portland, Oregon.

(This move turned-out to be one of many that would become a pattern in my life. This move set into motion what would be so many life-altering changes. Some of the changes have been positive, but not all of them. I strive to find positive in life, but often struggle to do so. It has not been uncommon from this point forward to make some disastrous decisions in my life choices. It also has not been uncommon since this event to just suddenly up-and-move. To leave life as I knew it behind, to start all-over again. At this point, I was only twelve, and this was my third time moving. By the age of forty, I had moved 42 times. I am now 43, and I have not counted recently how many times I have moved, but it is a Lot. Too Many. I will post more as time moves on.)

 Some may ask why I am even posting these at all. I write, and post them mostly for my own benefit. I have felt an urging to use creative expressionism to write-out some of my life-events. ( I often see people that are shocked by writings left behind by a someone who has died. I chuckle, and think Those writings are not that shocking compared to some of my own thoughts. With this on my mind, I created my blog. If anyone reads, and gets anything out of my writings, then that is why. If anyone understands what makes me tick just a little better, or finds something that could help themselves,or someone they care about, then that is why. Many of my life-events I have attempted to seek answers, and understanding from my own family. Perhaps some of my own family will see something that helps either myself, or helps them. Even if nobody ever reads any of my writings, At least I am getting them written, and available for those who may at some point decide to see what they are all about.

I hope you have a Safe, And Wonderful Day! JOn ~=:-)