It’s amused me over the years how some words from the “early” days of chat have become “common” words. Especially when the words are typos. True stuff like :) and l33t were typed like that on purpose but the other things like “pr0n” and “LOL!!11!1!” started as typos. “HO SHVIT!” is another, it’s one that about 18 years old, so most of you probably weren’t around to see it. Read it as a “HOLY SHIT” that got mauled because of a half-duplex terminal broadcasting at 300 baud (as in 0.3Kbps versus a dial up 56Kbps modem or a broadband 10000Kbps connection). Common error at the time, but one that has stuck with me for years and still makes me laugh.

But that’s not what I want to talk about… you see, my parents are moving.

Most of you just said, “So? People move all the time.” People that have known me for years just dropped their jaws on their keyboards. Chuck, who has known me for over twenty years, just passed out – he lived through my high school years when my Pops looked at every new townhouse built between 1985 and 1990 while my Mum vowed that she’d never move into a condo. I heard that my sister has turned to the sauce; it’s that big a shock.

I’ll help you to see the magnitude of news like this… My parents moved into their current home in 1967.

Ah. Now the rest of you just said, “HO SHVIT!”

Yeah, see, I told you it was news. This is the house I grew up in, the actual setting for my entire fictional book. It was the first house I ever entered, when I was brought home as a newborn. It was where I first played Atari, where my first four dogs and three cats lived and died. It’s the house my sister grew up in, since they moved into it when she was 1. [Yeah, she turned 40 this year. Just have to point that out at least once a week. Doh!] Hell, I lived there until I was 20… I remember how odd it was to me to see some of my friends in school get moved in and out of towns. One kid came into my class when his Dad was transfered from Singapore to CT and then was gone three months later, off to CA. That sorta stuff just never happened to people in my family.

Which also means that as of next summer, my parents will have had the same address for 40 years.

40. Years.

What are the odds that people even stay married that long these days, much less that they stay in the same place that long? Who has roots like that anymore? It’s not uncommon in my extended family, truth be told… in my experience first and second generation Italians [in America] don’t move all that often. Very much a “plant roots and let’m grow” sort of people. Comes from growing olives on the ‘boot, I guess, but it’s the third and fourth generations that move around more often. One of my cousins up to MA. All of my younger cousins all over New England for college. Obviously, I’m in WA, but that was a little extreme, even for them: I’m still seen as “weird” for finding land west of Pennsylvania… while I was growing up, it was completely conceivable that I’d get married, work in a small CT company, and some day buy my parents’ house to have my own children grow up there… even attend the same schools I did. The Italian-American dream, of sorts.

Oops. Guess I shot the hell outta that idea, but certainly not because I didn’t try.

The house hasn’t stayed the same either. Oh no, it’s been completely re-done at least twice. One smaller bedroom was removed for a larger dining room. Hard wood floors first got covered with carpet and then restored back to hard wood from 1975-1995. Both bathrooms were completely re-done a couple of years ago – which was a welcome change, considering that the original colors for them were lavender purple and mint green. A totally new family room was added. Two pools and three decks have come and gone. New asphalt laid down twice. The house has been painted gold, rust, gray, tan, and finally got sided, if only to stop the flow of colors. When I was young they had olive green carpeting in the living room with a floral print couch; neither saw 1981. After all, it wasn’t my parents’ fault. I blame the 70’s. Here’s an idea of what I’m talking about, and yes, I cropped off the heads on purpose… and the scan – and the 110 film it was taken on – doesn’t do justice to the color of the carpet, but between the couch, comforter, and the shoes… you get the idea.

It’ll be a while until their new place is ready to be moved into and probably just as long until they sell the current house, but the gears are now in motion… looks like I’ll have to bring back my digital camera this Christmas after all.

This will problem be the last time I’ll be in the old house before it’s packed up and sold.

Changes indeed.