flashback friday...home sweet home

this is where i grew up ~ newburg, n.d. we moved there when i was 2 years old. it's a very small town, with a population now less than 100. it was the best place to grow up! we could run around without fear of traffic or strangers.


an aerial view:


here's a shot from a field on the south side of town. isn't it pretty with the sunflowers? the high school is to the left.



the first picture in the group used to be the grocery store. that closed down close to 10 years ago. there is no store in town, but people can get a few things at the cenex gas station. now the store is a shrimp farm.
the 2nd photo is a picture of the school. when i was growing up, it housed the jr. & sr. high kids from newburg, maxbass, & kramer. those of us elementary age in newburg & kramer went to school in kramer, 13 miles from newburg. maxbass had it's own elementary school. but we all came together for grades 7-12. now, the newburg school is made up of k-12 grades. a lot has changed there!
the 3rd photo is the picture of the only church in town. it is the lutheran church that i grew up in & dennis & i got married in. the bell would chime each night at 9:00. when that happened, my brother & i knew it was time to go home. there was no excuse for not hearing it!
the last photo is a picture of the newburg mall. can you believe such a small town has a mall? well, it's a bit misleading...it contained the bank, the post office, an insurance office, a cafe, & the beauty shop that my mom owned & ran for 20 years.



there was a period of about 10 years in the 90's that our town would have a summer weekend celebration known as "nonsense daze". it was a lot of fun!! it consisted of a parade (of cars & farm equipment & businesses,etc.), tennis tournament, volleyball tournament, street dance, bbq, contests, games, arts & crafts, & some more things that i'm sure i've forgotten about. one of those years dennis was the grand marshal of the parade, being a local celebrity & all! :)


here you see my parents...


...who decided to dress up like this for the nonsense daze parade one year, riding a bicycle built for two. i imagine i was a bit embarrassed at the time!


here we are playing volleyball ~ dennis & me on the left, my parents on the right.


after a few years of regular volleyball, it was decided that mud volleyball would be even more fun. this is my dad with us. the grand prize for winning the mud vb tourney was towels & bars of soap. after the tournament was over, we'd pile in to the back of a few pick-up trucks & head to the local dam to share the soap & towels with all of us covered head-to-toe in mud. the towels were pretty much useless after that!

i have the best memories of growing up there & sometimes am saddened that my kids don't get to experience the same things that i did growing up. on the other hand, they live in a large city that offers opportunities too numerous to count!