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 places where I’ve lived:
1) The little white house on Wilart 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 of San Francisco. 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. (Added: Brosnan St.)
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, 18299 Yosemite Road – Oak Hill Acres – Apt. F… near Sonora. 1981.
30) A house in Tuolumne City, 18299 Yosemite Road – I think it was #C – at the front and to the right of the driveway when you drive into the parking area. . 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, CA, January 11, 2000 until June 30, 2013. 33 Druey Road. I wrote most of my novels there.
UPDATE: I left Happy Camp in 2013, and moved to Idaho.
50) An apartment for seniors 55+ in Post Falls, Idaho.
51) A better apartment in Post Falls, Idaho… living here now, and loving it.
I can’t even imagine moving that much. I’m in my seventh dwelling now — been here in San Luis Obispo County for 22 years. Before that I was in Ventura County for 14 years, and Culver City for 9 years. I grew up in Bellflower (two different houses) and after college I got married. We lived a few months in West Los Angeles and then in two different apartments in Long Beach before we moved to Culver City in 1967. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family that was happy.
Barbara… my ex-husband’s parents lived in Bellflower… maybe you knew him. (John Murphy) . . . not like that’s an uncommon name. It is about as common as mine. But he was probably older than you – born in 1945.
My life has been turmoil. Since my second divorce I’ve made more of an effort to stay in homes longer. Happy Camp was the longest. I loved that place, and it is the only place that feels like my “home town” other than the SF Bay Area in general.
Hi,
i have been in many places in my youth travelling, but being almost my time living in Hamburg, near the same neighborhood i grow up. It is nice, it give me a root, belonging to a place on the earth. I forgot to mention, that i like danmark nad working for holiday cottages website and i was born in Chile. So it is not so that i am not international.
Hans, you’ve traveled more than I have! I have always lived in the state of California, and have never been off the North American continent. The only “foreign” country I’ve ever been in is Canada! I would love to visit Chile, or Denmark! It is good to have roots in one neighborhood, I think. My family has been too mobile. I can’t even say I have a “home town” because I’ve lived in so many different places.
Hi,
i have been in many places in my youth travelling, but being almost my time living in Hamburg, near the same neighborhood i grow up. It is nice, it give me a root, belonging to a place on the earth.
Wow…wooow… amazing living in the different place, i can imagine how many beautiful or not stories during that time… mine is only 5 places after this 35 age. Happy to know you very happy…
OMG, You have been in a lot of places. How have you managed to live there all these years. And pardon my intrusion, how are are you now? Plus you really lived in a trailer park?
Henriette, yes, it is true – I lived in a trailer park for a few years many years back. Trailer parks aren’t all that uncommon here in the USA. I see you’re in Denmark so I guess they aren’t normal there… you would be way too cold! My trailer park experiences were in the California central valley where it is warm much of the year, and never snows. I’m 57 now… and finally have lived ten years in one location for the first time in my life. I like living here in the mountains. Our house is more shack/cabin/rustic than most but so comfortable, surrounded by trees and land… I’m very happy where I’m at. (Finally!)