Remembering the Old Neighborhood

 Saturday, September 21, 2024

Took a walk around my old neighborhood where I grew up. Got some coffee at Starbucks which is in the old Salk Drugstore building. The church we belonged to growing up and one of the elementary schools I attended are just across from the coffee shop.

Next took my coffee and drove to Stevens Avenue and Minnehaha Parkway which is just a couple of blocks from the house I lived in growning up. We were down at Minnehaha Creek a lot when I was a kid. It was a great place to walk and ride bikes. I clomped around for a bit heading west toward the Nicollet Avenue bridge. 

We drive by this area so much but I haven't been on foot here for quite a while. In the above photo you can barely see the creek through all the growth on the creek bank. Like I said, I haven't been on foot here for a while so I could here the sound of the water moving which brought back auditory memories to go along with the visual ones. 

I headed back to where I had parked near the bridge pictured above and decided to continue my walk heading east and take the route I took to my other elementary school which was just a few blocks away. I walked under the 35W bridge and arrived at 2nd Avenue and "The Hill." 

The Hill was much steeper just beyond what is shown in these photos.  We walked over what was actually the top of The Hill, a lovely level wooded area that was the about the size of 6-8 city lots. There's now a retaining wall where our walk across it began.

What you see in the lower center of the above photo is where The Hill started to slope down to another large leveled area. The residence you see is where the playground began. The school was just beyond that. 

My best friend in elementary school, Josh, lived in the middle house shown above. This was the block just south of the school.