The East Side of My Memories Will Always Be Home

I was born on the East Side of St. Paul, and despite having moved multiple times as I was growing up, my family and I always lived in houses that weren't very far from grandparents, and all those homes were on the East Side.

I attended East Side public schools (Mounds Park, Farnsworth, Cleveland Junior High, and Johnson High). I lived with my grandparents on Wheelock through college, and then upon graduation from the U of M, I did the unthinkable - I moved to Minneapolis (well, Bloomington to be exact). And then I lived in several different places around the U.S., moving back to St. Paul for a few years when our eldest was a toddler. Our two younger children were born at Ramsey Hospital (now Regions). But we moved away in 1996, and I have only returned briefly for visits.

But I will always think of the East Side as my home.

Not the East Side as it now exists; it's an unfamiliar and baffling place to me. Streets have appeared that weren't there when I was young. New ones have sprung up, or old ones have been given new names. The houses I lived in have either been torn down or remodeled so much I barely recognize them. The beach house at Lake Phalen is long gone, and even Phalen Park has been changed drastically. You can't drive around the lake like we did in my teenage years. No, the East Side I call home is the one in my memories.

Recently my husband and I returned to the Twin Cities for our daughter's memorial. Driving past St. Paul via I-94 on our way to Hudson, Wisconsin (where we were staying) from the airport, i felt nostalgic when I spied familiar landmarks, but so much had changed. We had a very packed agenda, and there wasn't time for a literal trip down memory lane, so I had to settle for entertaining some moments I recalled.

Oh, and we did meet up with a few of my old friends from high school for a couple of meals, and we forced our spouses to tolerate our revisiting certain adventures from our youth. God bless them for putting up with that. There was something comforting about recalling long-ago events in a time that was mostly otherwise sad. My friends all live in the St. Paul area, though no longer on the East Side.

Our daughter had grown up on the East Side, too, even though she had been born in Ohio. She was barely a year old when we moved back to St. Paul, renting a house on Ivy near Prosperity. A year later her brother was born, and a year after that we bought a house on Ivy near Payne, behind Johnson High School.

(Ironic side note: The seller was moving to a retirement community - also on Ivy. So all these old addresses/new addresses being on the same street created quite a confusion at the closing. The agent was sure someone had made some typos on the forms.)

Two years after that our youngest was born, and in 1996 we moved to Duluth. But our two eldest followed their mom and went to Farnsworth to begin their education. They ran around with our dog, Molly, on the athletic field behind the high school. But it had changed over the years, too. An indoor ice rink had been built in the intervening years, and now the hockey team had a place to practice instead of sharing rink time with other schools and public skating at Aldrich Arena on White Bear. More changes.

From what I can tell, most of the kids I grew up with still live in the St. Paul area, some close to where we all grew up. But a few of us have struck out for places further away. I now live in the Puget Sound area of western Washington, and I learned today that my best friend growing up - Deb Spiess - now lives in Phoenix. I've sent her a friend request on Facebook, and I'm hoping to rekindle an old friendship. But regardless of how it turns out, we still have a lot of fun together in the East Side of my memories.

I read things on social media from East Side residents or ex-pats, that it's not what it used to be, that it's changed so much. Somehow I don't think it's any different than every other community across the country. Places change, evolve, grow, adapt. But in my mind the East Side will remain as it was, fixed in time, full of wonderful memories that I enjoy visiting whenever I feel like it. No plane ticket needed. Friends I have long since lost track of are always available to come out and play hide and seek or kick the can.

The elm trees that were on every street continue to give us shade as we play hop scotch and jump rope on the sidewalk. We still gather in my garage on Lane Place on a rainy day for an extended game of Monopoly. We still swim at the Point on Lake Phalen. We ride our bikes on hot summer days to enjoy the cool inside Arlington Hills Library as we curl up with our favorite books on the window seats and add to our circles on the summer reading program board.

We catch the 14-B bus on Maryland to go downtown and wander around checking out the new 45s at Musicland. Or we work on research for our AP history papers in the James J. Hill reference room at the public library. We grab a root beer float from the A & W in front of Johnson High School, and we get a little rowdy at the Harvest Festival Parade on Payne Avenue. Sometimes we bowl a game or two at Hafner's on White Bear (and of course, fried chicken from Jerry's afterward). We sit in the chill inside the St. Paul Auditorium and cheer on the Govies during the high school hockey tournament. But mostly we enjoy all the life the East Side has to offer. We didn't have to go far to have fun.

That's the East Side that will always be my home.