Thursday, April 3, 2008

Flashback Friday: Early Edition Week 5

For earlier editions, you can look in my Archives.

Well, we only lived in Los Fresnos for that one year. My mom got tired of being overworked at her fabulous job as a resort manager on South Padre Island. So, she quit and found a new job in Brownsville as an apartment manager. {Maybe that's where I got my mad management skills from!} :0)


So, we moved into the apartments there. She still drove us to the same elementary though. Not sure why, but we still went to Los Fresnos Elementary for my 4th grade year. It was the only elementary I went to two consecutive years in a row. Well, I can't say that. I went to kindergarten and 1st grade at the same elementary in Utah. 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades were all done at different schools.


What I remember about Brownsville?


I shared a room with my brother and little sister. We had bunkbeds...two sets in that room. {It was a big room} We had a balcony in that bedroom. Since there were four of us kids to squeeze into a three bedroom apartment, my parents took the bedroom downstairs and us kids got the entire upstairs to ourselves. My older sister got the master bedroom {she had to share her closet with her sisters though}. Our two bedrooms were connected by the master bathroom. It had the most AWESOME shower in there. It was huge. So huge that I remember all of us kids climbing in together to shower {IN OUR BATHING SUITS!!!! Don't be thinking dirty!} We had room to spare in there too. We only did that once, but I specifically remember it. We had Love Potion No. 9 blasting from a tape in our boombox :0) I used to love that song. :0)

Anyway... our friends lived about 5 apartments down from us. They had a son my brothers age, and he had the same name as my brother too! It was crazy. The little girl my sister and I played with was Amber. She was more my sisters age, but that was ok. We're only 18 months apart anyway. :0)


While we lived in Brownsville, Hurricane Gilbert decided to try to come and play. He was a big one. At his worst, he was a Category 5 Hurricane. That's when he hit Central America on his way to us. He slowed down to a Category 3 just before he was going to hit. Category 3 still means winds at 130 miles per hour. So, what else do you do? You tape up the windows. You put all your belongings on high shelves in case it floods. And you get out of town. We went to visit family in San Antonio. Unfortunately, when we got there, we realized that a tornado watch was going on. So, we left the hurricane only to run into a tornado. Luckily, the tornado didn't touch down where we were at, and so we were ok. AND, lucky for us, the hurricane changed it's course at the last minute and hit Mexico instead of Texas, though the winds did still affect our area. Our house was fine, though you have to feel bad for those it affected. I can only imagine the losses that occured to those in Mexico. :0(


On a brighter note....I had a killer piano teacher, we lived next door to a lady that taught me how to make homemade corn tortillas {meaning, actually grinding corn and everything!}, and life was generally pretty good! This was when we had our fabulous Atari 2600. It wasn't the new fancy 5200 version, but it rocked! :0) We played Donkey Kong and Joust, and I think we even had a Space game on it, too. The graphics were amazing! :0) I mean...look at that Joystick! I wonder why it's call a JOY-stick? Probably because it brought so much joy to those who played their video games with it. SIgh..... :0) Now, you don't even need a JoyStick...you use a Wii-mote instead and just wave it around in the air. Sigh....those were the good old days.

9 comments:

Christie said...

Donkey Kong was the best with the joystick that had one button. Nothing like it.

Love learning about you! So fun!

Unknown said...

Yummy! Nothing better than homemade tortillas--corn or flour! :)

Cameron said...

You took showers with your siblings? Gross.

Wasn't that hurricane when we were in the other Brownsville house?

I totally kicked your butt in Joust. Remember that food fighting game? I rocked that one too.

Unknown said...

Yes, the hurricane occured when we lived in the Spence's old house after they moved to Utah. I remember boarding up the windows. You remember the most random things...I don't even remember the shower at all, and I am sure that I would never have been in the same shower as you. :o)

Anonymous said...

That shower sounds awesome. My friend at work and I were just talking about how wonderful multi person showers were (spouses only of course!).

Unknown said...

hi ashlee -- this sounds like so much fun. thanks for sharing the memory.

friday fiction, my blog, bring cookies. happy friday, kathleen :)

Alicia said...

Good times, although on the scary side. We used to have the Atari, I was a lot better at that than any of the new stuff.

Cameron said...

It seems like there were two hurricanes while we were in Texas. The one when we left and went to San Antonio, and another one that we stayed for.

Remember that huge flood in Harlingen?

Ashlee said...

There was another hurricane the next year. I don't remember much about it though.

Cam, you are getting ahead of the story here. We haven't gotten to Harlingen yet! Patience!