Growing up on Whidbey:
Several of you have expressed interest in knowing what it was like to grow up on an island like Whidbey. First of all let me clear up a misconception. I did not grow up on Whidbey, I came here when I was in the 4th grade, and left the summer between my 5th and 6th grade year. HOWEVER, this was the place that I thought of as home, This was the place that I was allowed to go out of the yard, and not be kidnapped. (My Mom was a worrier.) I was born in San Diego, Calif. And lived there for a year, then to Seattle and then when I was 3 we went to Hawaii and to Guam, then back to San Diego , then back to Hawaii, and THEN to Whidbey.
I was awestruck! There were big Pine trees EVERYwhere. We first moved into a 2 room apt above a garage on Goldie Rd. Back then, there was hardly any housing available for rent, and there was a waiting list for housing. We were lucky to get the apt. It was out in the woods, and I had to walk out to the rd, and catch a school bus to school!! I had never done that before. It took us to the New school Clover Valley, and it was great! I got to look out the cafeteria window at the most wondrous sight I has ever seen!! A Mountain. Sticking up big and snow covered, with no other mtns around it. I Loved that Mountain. I found out it was called Mt. Baker, and was a dormant Volcano! Even back then I was intrigued over geology! I would sit and stare at that Mountain every chance I got!
We then moved into town, into a 2 bedroom house. (actually more, but we were only allowed into the bottom floor. The attic was off limits, and full of the land lords stuff. (yes, We did peek, and there was an old stuffed owl up there looking right down the stairs…scared the crap out of me!!) Our house is now gone, but it used to be right where the new addition to the Playhouse is now. I used to look out the bedroom window, and past the barn to the Old Dutch Reformed Church. Which is now the playhouse!
Midway Blvd was only 2 lanes then, and there were NO stoplights in town. Chimes Corner was the end of town, and that was fairly new too. Then they opened Thriftway, which was in the woods!! (all of this is now down a very busy 4 lane Blvd.)
We then moved out, waaaaay Out in the country. All the way to Libby Rd. which is ½ way to Coupeville. And we were living in a Log Cabin in the woods, heated with a big old fireplace, and it had a loft upstairs where Phyllis and I slept. We thought we had died and gone to heaven!! Dad helped us feel that way, by pointing out all of the wildlife that came out of the woods and walked through our “yard”. Deer, Squirrels, rabbits…all right in our yard!!!
During the weekends, Dad would load Phyllis and I into the station wagon and we would go beach combing down on West Beach, where there was tons of driftwood to be had. There were no mansions there then, and the water would come right over the road, and leave the driftwood right there. We would walk along throwing logs up to the pavement, and then go back to the car and drive along and pick it all up and load it into the back. You can not imagine how much wood a 1954 Ford Station Wagon can hold with the seats down!! (whew) When we got home, we would unload the wood out back, then Phyllis and I would get the two man buck saw and cut the wood into fireplace lengths, and Dad would split it. Work, but fun work, as we had never done this sort of thing before. We lived in the cabin for about 6 months and then moved on to Penn Cove Park, A fairly new development out in the woods.
Tomorrow, Penn Cove
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