Saturday, July 25, 2009

Perham

Our family spent three years living in Perham, MN. We lived their from 1981-84. I went to Kindergarten, first, and second grade there. I have many good memories from our time there. It was a small town, so we literally biked wherever we wanted, and our parents let us. We played hard outside, exploring the various locations in town, went to the library, Steve's candy store (I always find one of those), participated in the Turtle Races weekly, went fishing a lot with my dad, hung out at the roller rink (where I got to skate hand in hand with my 2nd grade boyfriend to Air Supply's Making Love Out of Nothing At All no less), and made many friends. Interestingly, when my dad's teaching job was recalled in 1984, we were thrilled to move back to Moorhead. That had always been the #1 spot to live in my mind.

The one person I kept in touch with was my best friend Jennifer. I worshipped her for a long time prior to us becoming friends. She had long hair that her mom put in pretty pony tails. I had the lovely Dorothy Hamill haircut that resembled a boy. She had a mom that I thought was gorgeous, plus she had three young siblings. I will admit, another reason I was a little obsessive was because she threw up in class in the first grade...but I won't get into the details.

We exchanged letters for a long time as well as school pictures, but eventually drifted. Well good old Facebook changed that! Finally after a few months of communicating, Jennifer and her mom helped to set up a reunion at Zorbaz at Little Pine lake today. I brought my kids, Erin brought her two youngest, and my mom came as well. We visited, reminsiced, laughed, and enjoyed one another's company.

Do you have people who were (in hindsight) a part of your life for only a couple years, but had a big impact? This family did. Jennifer and I spent a lot of time together. We both had matching pink jackets to be like the Pink Ladies, enjoyed Culture Club & Michael Jackson, swimming (even though I couldn't), playing at the park, and just doing what your average seven year old did.

Here are some pictures of our day....this was the apartment we lived in for two years. It was awesome sharing a room with Erin AND sharing a bathroom with our entire family. We have become spoiled.
This was our house...

5 comments:

Erin said...

Excellent post, Bonnie. It was a great day. What I realized as I read your memories was that you and I had completely different (almost opposite) experiences living in Perham. It's a beautiful town and the Rises are wonderful people, but I harbored resentment toward Perham for years--literally. I have a few pleasant memories, but the majority of them are very negative. Isn't it interesting that 1) we had such different experiences, and 2) I never realized how much you liked living there?

ABCDH said...

That's so cool that you got to reconnect with Jennifer.
I grew up with the Hausmans and have never been able to get in touch with them. Sort of a bummer.

Unknown said...

I was a Yellowjacket before becoming a Spud as well. Weird!

Vicky said...

That is so cool that you all got the chance and took the time to reconnect! Facebook has been great for finding old friends and neighbors to reconnect with. Thanks for sharing, Ioved reading this!

Anonymous said...

Bonnie - I never knew that you lived in Perham at one time. Jay's parents have a cabin there and it has become a 2nd home for us - in fact we were there this weekend and the Pruses are there all week on vacation. I, too, love Perham and say that it would be the only small town I would ever move to. Cute story and glad that you could catch up with old friends.

Amanda Swenson