A quarter century later

Twenty-five years ago today, we left Ypsilanti, Mich., and moved to Minneapolis. For some reason, the date was emblazoned on my brain.

A few years ago I was in the old neighborhood, which was fairly depressing. Mom and Dad had always said the plan was to live there for a couple of years and then move to Ann Arbor, but considering we couldn't sell that house even when it was time to move to Minnesota, I can see why that didn't happen.

I remember being bummed at the time about leaving my friends and such. But it turned out alright.

Hopefully Elizabeth and Robert feel the same way 25 years from now. I don't think Colleen will notice.

The last day at St. Francis of Assisi school in Ann Arbor, Neil and I both had gotten pink eye, so we were leaving school early. I remember my sixth-grade teacher sending me down to the office with some meaningless paperwork so they could get set up for my going-away party. We'd only started going to that school that year, but it was a nice gesture.

Dad will remind us, if I don't, so I'll just note that on the drive home from school I threw up in the back of the car. That was a car he had borrowed from a co-worker to bring us home, since we had only one car and he took the bus to work.