the year i turned nine

the year i turned nine years old my family lost our house. my dad owned his own roofing business and failed to pay his taxes resulting in the IRS claiming our house to cover the debt. we rented a house in a different city about 10 minutes away and moved there just before i started the 4th grade.

this year was one of the most difficult of my childhood. and i have more vivid memories of it than almost any other.

strangely, amidst this jumble of memories are almost none of moving. i don't remember packing up our house or seeing it empty. and i only vaguely remember moving into our new home. but the year that would follow i remember well.

our new home was an average size house with a tuck under garage. it was red and was on a hill. the back yard had a chain link fence and lilac bushes. down the block and just around the corner was a fina gas station and a tom thumb convenience store where my brothers and i made it a habit of visiting almost every day the year we lived there.

also down the block was nine mile creek. the creek, which ran through our neighborhood, became the center of many of our adventures.

it's funny how we experience things differently than the adults around us. i remember feeling that in some way i should be ashamed of our move to our new home. it was clear my parents were. after all, we had lost our house due to tax evasion. but in many ways this was one of the most exciting things i'd ever experienced. a new house, new neighborhood, new friends - secretly i felt some pleasure at being in this new place.

of course, during this time my dad was out of work. so the heavy feelings i avoided about why we moved weren't the only ones vying for my attention. my dad had recently completed a computer training school and was looking to get out of roofing and get a job as a programmer. he applied for job after job with no luck. he'd don his gray suit and head off to an interview, returning hopeful but resigned he'd resume his post sitting at the dining room table pouring over the newspaper want ads.

eventually we ran out of money, and had to get on public assistance. at this point, i think my dad's pride and sense of responsibility took over, and to my mom's dismay he stopped looking for the new career and just started looking for a job.

-kmj