Last year I ran my first-ever writing contest. I made it simple – a matter of descriptive writing for which I’d offer one prize to a lucky winner determined by … well, LUCK. Instead of judging descriptions as good or bad, I decided to just pick one name at random. I wrote everyone’s name on a slip of paper and chose one winner. Fair enough?

WordCustard is the Squidoo screen name for a woman in Scotland. She’s written about Valentines Day food and lights, snowboarding tips for women, The Alps, in Europe, and many other fascinating topics! WordCustard received the contest prize: $25, sent through PayPal. I intended to give her an Amazon gift certificate instead but found out it is very difficult to purchase one for someone in the UK from my side of the pond, in the USA.

WordCustard’s blog is here: The Custard Bowl.

Thanks to everyone who participated!!

I wrote this list in my journal a few days ago, and hope it will help me as I write my narrative timeline (autobiography a la Julia Cameron’s book, A Vein of Gold.)

My list of 49 places where I’ve lived:

1) The little white house on Willet’s Drive in San Pablo – it has since been torn down. Age 0 to 2/3?
2) Mira Vista Drive, El Cerrito – age 2/3 to 8.
3) 3314 Morningside Drive, El Sobrante/Richmond – age 8 to 18 except for the times I wasn’t there.
4) My grandmother’s home in San Leandro, and my uncle’s home in Hayward – stayed there for four or five months when I was fifteen.
5) My friend Leslie’s home on Bayview Court in El Sobrante – I stayed there four or five months when I was sixteen.
6) My friend Susan’s home on Gold Court in El Sobrante – I stayed there four or five months when I was seventeen. All these were places I went for refuge because I couldn’t get along with my mother. Every year I left in about September/October and didn’t return until after the first of the following year.
7) A house on 17th Avenue in the Richmond District. I can’t remember what age I was when I lived there, with friends. Stayed about four or five months. One of those very foggy memories.
8 ) A flat on California Street in Santa Cruz – I always thought of this as the first place I moved to when I left home at 18, but it couldn’t have been because I lived in the Richmond District before that. I stayed only a couple months in Santa Cruz though it is one of the best towns I’ve ever lived in.
9) A room in a flat on Baker Street in San Francisco. A month or two.
10) A room in a flat on Noe Street in San Francisco – stayed there a few months then went on my Grand Canyon adventure in January 1972. I remember this date by the date of the total eclipse of the moon that I saw while there. I was 19 at the time.
11) 1649 Page Street in the Haight Ashbury. I lived there for 4 or 5 months.
12) A room in an apartment on Upper Ashbury. That lasted only about a month, if that. The woman we moved in with kept flirting with my boyfriend which annoyed me terribly!
13) A room in a flat on (I think) 26th near Guerrero in San Francisco. Lived there possibly six months.
14) An apartment upstairs from that room. I lived there a few months in 1973 and was there when my first child was born on April 24, 1973.
15) A house just outside of Vista, southern California, where I lived a few months with my son’s father. It was on a property called Palm Hill Ranch.
16) An apartment across the street from the old Levi Strauss factory ruins in San Francisco, around the corner from Valencia. (Can’t remember the street name just now.) We sub-letted the place for a few months.
17) A flat at 444 Virginia St. on Potrero Hill, San Francisco. Lived there a few months in 1973, then felt the need to leave my son’s father.
18 ) Back to my mother’s home for a month or so. I’m re-counting this place because so much time went by before I moved back there.
19) An apartment on Tenth Avenue in Redding, CA. – 1974.
20) A tiny hotel room in Redding. It was too small and I moved out after a month.
21) A cottage on Shasta Street in Redding – 1974-5.
22) A house on Shasta Street in Redding – 1976-7.
23) Mary Anne Risley’s home in Modesto – stayed for a month or two in 1977.
24) The horrible Mesa Verde Apartments in Modesto. Stayed there for a few months in 1977-8.
25) A duplex on Evergreen Road in Modesto. 1978.
26) Sister-in-law Terry’s house on 6th St. in Merced. 1978-1979.
27) An apartment in Merced – a couple months.
28 ) A house on Franklin Street in Merced. – 1980-81.
29) An apartment in Tuolumne City, near Sonora. 1981.
30) A house in Tuolumne City. 1981-2.
31) 717 Denair Street in Tulare, CA.
32) Trailer #1 – a 17’ travel trailer in the trailer court across from the fairgrounds in Tulare.
33) Trailer #2 – a 40’ 1957 park model trailer in the same trailer court.
34) Same trailer – moved it to a trailer park in the countryside near Kerman, CA. 1983 or 1984.
35) A grouphome where my husband worked near Fresno, for a couple months.
36) Homeless in the Bay Area for a few months, as my trailer was rented out.
37) Back to the Kerman trailer park. 1985-6.
38 ) An apartment in Reedley, CA. 1986.
39) 334 Crenshaw Road, Visalia, a condo. 1986-1988.
40) An old house on G St. in Visalia. 1988.
41) An apartment on Caldwell in Visalia. 1988-9.
42) An apartment near Demaree in Visalia. 1989.
43) Another apartment in the same complex.
44) An apartment near the freeway in Tulare, 1990. The absolute worst place I’ve ever lived because the freeway sound was constant.
45) A house in Tulare. Three years, from 1990-1993.
46) A flat in North Oakland. Nearly three years. 1993-1995.
47) A duplex in Pittsburg CA at the corner of 17th and Davi, 1995-1999. Five years.
48 ) The hotel in Dunsmuir. A month from 1999-2000.
49) A cabin/house in the woods near Happy Camp, January 11, 2000 until now.