I don't remember anything about the house I lived in from the time I was born until I was 3.  That house was in Chatham, Ontario, the city my dad grew up in, where his sister's family lived and where his mom lived.  When I was 5 we moved 30 minutes away to Tilbury, my mom's hometown where my meme (grandma) and pepe (grandpa), my mom's meme's, and mom's younger brother lived.  Dad was the assistant manager at the grocery store there for 2  years, then he was transferred to Kingsville, a small town 30-40 minutes away, to take the Manager position at a new store there.  

While we were living in Tilbury I met my husband.  I didn't actually know it then, of course, and neither did he.  The Drinkwaters, a British family who had just taken the boat (it was probably a plane but a boat sounds more exciting)over from England moved in next door to us on Crawford St.  Anne Drinkwater was the same age as my mom's older sister (same birthday even) and my mom helped her to feel less homesick being so far from home.  When my mom worked Anne would babysit me.  Their first Halloween in Canada we took the Drinkwater boys, Mark (9) and Steven (11), trick-or-treating since they don't do trick-or-treating in England. In England their Halloween is Nov 5 and they call it Guy Fawkes night. They have fireworks, set bonfires and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. Sounds like a great kid friendly event. The Drinkwater's and my family took short trips together (see beach pic below) and the boys camped out in our living room once (I only know that because I have pictures).  In the picture below, from left to right : Anne, my sister, me on my mom's lap and Mark being goofy (I'm sure he brought that bathing suit from England. It doesn't look like anything I've seen a boy wear before.  It's a cross between a speedo and short shorts.)

Mark, who is now my husband, remembers having dinner at our picnic table in our backyard and he remembers the Halloween that he trick-or-treated with us. I wish I had memories of him from back then. All I can remember is that he was cute, like Beaver Cleaver, with chubby cheeks. In the picture above his cheeks aren't chubby so I'm not sure what I was thinking.  Maybe I was thinking of my own cheeks.

We moved to Kingsville when I was 7 and the Drinkwater's would visit us on occasion but as the years passed by the time between visits got longer.  I don't remember them visiting us at all but Mark remembers a New Years Eve get together at our house, probably the first year we were in the new house, and he had asked his parents on the way to our house if he had to kiss the Westman girls at midnight. (I don't hear him complaining about kissing me now.. LOL).  By the time I was in my early teens visits were mainly between my mom and Anne when my mom would visit my meme in Tilbury and afterwards she would go around the block and visit Anne. Before Mark and I started dating, the last time I can recall catching a glimpse of him (and that's all it was, a glimpse) was when I was with my mom visiting at Anne's house.  I was around 13 so that would have put Mark at 17.  He was in the living room watching tv and I couldn't see him well because Anne had this fabulous (not really) macrame door partition hanging between the kitchen and living room.  Mom, Anne and I sat in the dining room and Mark, being his typical social self  (not.. although who can blame him.  he's 17 and there's an awkward 13 yr old geek with braces visiting) didn't bother coming to say hi to the visitors. He left shortly after we arrived to go find something more entertaining to do (because the town of Tilbury with its 4000 people is a barrel full of fun!).

The next time I saw him  was at The RoadKill Cafe.  I was one week shy of 24 and he was almost 28.