3319 Brest Avenue

Due to lack of any remarkable research findings to report, I will take this opportunity to share some personal memories of early childhood.

My parents were only 22 and 24 when I was born. Their first home was on Brest Avenue in Norfolk. We lived there until just before my sister was born. I was five years old. Here is the house today... the crepe myrtles and shrubs were not there in 1959. There also appears to be an addition on the back of the house that wasn't there.

3319 Brest Avenue, Norfolk Va.
Google Maps, December 2016

I have few but very distinct memories of being in this little house...

Sitting at the kitchen table and discussing possible names for my new kitten. I was probably only two or three years old. Apparently, my mind was only on the food because we named the cat Applesauce.

Breaking my leg falling out of the high chair.

Running crying from the kitchen into the bedroom and into my dad's arms (oddly, I associate this vivid moment with breaking my leg but that does not make sense).

Getting a new dog, a beagle named Butch (wonder what happened to Applesauce?).

The mimosa tree in the backyard, in whose shade we lived and moved in the summertime. I remember having a good sized wading pool where all the neighborhood kids came to swim. My July birthday parties were held at a picnic table under that tree.

My friend David who had a prosthetic leg. He had to take it off to swim in my pool.

My friend (Karen I think) who lived across the street and had a mean dog on a chain in her backyard.

The detached garage that my dad built. I don't remember much about the process of building it, but I do remember clearly what it looked like. If you look closely at the photo above, you can catch a glimpse of it.

Santa Claus (a neighbor dressed up) visiting us in our home and scaring me to death.

A Christmas gift - a large robotic gorilla which came with a cork gun. If you could hit the gorilla in the chest with a cork, it would give a frightening roar and flash its green eyes and start moving menacingly toward you. The thing scared me to death! Isn't it just like my dad to come up with a gift like this for a little girl.

The neighborhood bully who told a group of us younger ones about the "bloody bones" in the window of the creepy house on the corner and scared me to death.

I was a timid child.

My friend Rexanne who lived around the corner (the other way from the creepy house) who shared my same exact birthday. We love to connect about that fact to this day. Coincidentally, she was friends with my future spouse in high school.

My cousins living on the next block (Argonne Avenue). I ran away once and called to my Uncle Sonny to help me cross the street. I don't remember this, but my mother says she was very upset with me.

Sitting in front of the TV every Saturday morning in the living room, patiently watching the test pattern until cartoons came on at 7:30.

I have other memories, such as visiting my grandparents during these early years, but this is the sum total of my memories about living in the house on Brest Avenue.