Welcome to My Neighborhood!

Thanks to Kathleen for this great idea of visiting everyone's neighborhoods. I hope you enjoy your visit! Having been in a parsonage growing up, I lived in many towns and many abodes. But I have lived in this location for over 35 years. We won't go into how much the town has grown in those 35+ years, nor the controversy over having 2 super Wal-Marts, a Sam's, a Home Depot and Lowe's, Target, and tons of new growth in every direction. Does any town need a new bank every week? Or yet another liquor store?? But it's a great place to live and I'll show you only the good parts!

Our 35th anniversary is coming up in December. This was our first apartment - a nice brick duplex, with a very quiet single lady next door, so we didn't have to worry about getting frustrated with noise. The tree that you see behind the house was a small sapling when we moved in. (Double click on any pictures if you want more detail).

When we began our family, we bought a small, new house - 900 square feet, but it was ours. We landscaped and fenced, and lived there for almost 4 years.

When we had two kids and no room to move, we bought our second house, where we still live. It is at the end of a culdesac, and it was great fun raising our family here, with up to 32 children on the street at one time.

Now we'll take a little tour of town and some of my favorite spots. We are driving down the main street toward the library . . . looks like they need to replace that poor tree on the left!

On the right is one of my favorites stores - Probasco's. This is a family-owned Bible and Christian book store, which also specializes in wigs. Frieda add the wig shop when she realized how many women in town needed that service during chemotherapy. They have provided a great service in so many areas and are wonderful people.

We're at the library now, and enjoying the sculptures and the fountain. . .

In the same area as the library is the first school in this town. The sign says "Washington School 1905. It sat in a falling down condition for years until someone decided to refurbish it and turn it into the city government building. I am so glad they did this instead of tearing it down. They did a wonderful job of restoring the brick , the marble, the brass. Then they built a "twin" building and connected the two with a glass walkway. It was a stunning addition to this part of town.

On the way back from the library, we like to stop and visit the classic old Dairy Queen. It has been on this extremely busy corner for over 50 years. My youngest brother used to work here when he lived here and was in high school.

We're not quite ready to go home yet, and it's a beautiful pre-fall day, so we headed west down the highway toward the lake, then across the street to one of the really nice parks in town. We call this one the "Cannon Park," though it's really named in honor of the first young man from our town to die during World War II. We call it that to differentiate it from "the train park", where the kids can ride a child-sized train for 75 cents.

This town has turned into quite the art mecca. We have quite a few bronze casting foundries. In August, we have an influx of artists who come to show and sell their lovely products. They take over this park for the week-end. But the rest of the year it is one of the favorite places to take your company for "show and tell." There are many varieties of sculptures - I prefer the realistic ones to the abstract, but those who seem to think they know keep telling me "art is in the eye of the beholder."

I especially love this section named especially for the children:

Here's a shot of the place I don't get to often enough - the gym!

On Sunday, and often several other times in the week, we go down the street about a mile to our church. We consider this body of believers our extended family. They are very important to us.

On week-days, we head in different directions. The kiddoes go here:

I don't have any pictures of DC's place of employment, but here is my view to the east as I head north to work.

This is the entrance to my office building.

Our evening bike rides give us this beautiful view.

Come and visit sometime! We'll check out all these fun things and lots more.