When I was a teenager, my family of four had to move into an 18-foot Class C RV.

My dad took a job across the state, and we had nowhere to live and no money. My parents did the best they could.

We eventually moved into a little double-wide for rent in town.

People might look down on that, but I'm telling you right now that summer and the next 18 months were my childhood's two most memorable years.

We did free things and drove almost daily into the region's outskirts. My brother and I would explore the ruins of abandoned cabins, peeling back layers of wall insulation of the day (newspapers) to reveal dates from the early 1900s.

We played outside because the inside was really only for sleeping or shelter during storms.

We went to every museum and attended every free event downtown put on.

We became experts at which washing machines and dryers worked the best in the local laundromat.

We spent copious amounts of time in the libraries, especially the one that had the basement where a rummage sale happened each week.

We experienced extreme weather bouts where we learned so much about ourselves and the world around us.

We hiked on the weekends.

Mom had to take a part-time job. I used to help her periodically and learned some things by doing that, too.

I learned about angry yellow jackets, bucket rides that helped you scale mountains, and legends of the local Native Americans.

Forest fires happened the following summer. After that, we joined the mushroom pickers for a chance to make extra money. I remember I got to keep around $20 for putting up with Dad dragging us up the mountainside.

Mom wasn't 100% pleased, that I remember, but it was a good adventure, and by the end of the day, my brother and I were too tired to argue.

The wildlife was unmatched for that part of the world.

I'm sure my parents had an entirely different perspective on things, but those two years were full of imagination, awe, and discovery. Thirty-five years later, I still remember the most details from that period.

I never would have had those experiences had we not moved into that tiny RV, no matter how temporary.

#story #stories #memoir