Great post. I can just see you and Ives having "gun battles" with your friends in that huge yard! And I love the imagery of the duck hanging in the back.

Oddly enough, my brother Larry just moved back to the Minneapolis area, too! He and his wife live just a few miles from my parents.

Now I can see the pix ^_^
Love the story about the woodpile--the previous owners of our current home left us their cord of wood 12 years ago, and we still haven't used it. Now we just dream of an "accident" occuring in our (detached) garage that will require some new construction.

My dad grew all our vegetables, too, but thankfully, didn't consider zucchini one.
Woodbury was such a great place to grow up back then. Running around outside all.day.long and all.evening.long--man, what our kids are missing!

I remember your house - version 1.0 with the red door and lion heads. I can even picture the inside layout a little (den with your TRS-80 off to the right of the front door?) The size of that tree really kills me. Wow.

Thanks to Ives for getting those. Its been ages since I've been in Royal Oaks. Absolutely an wonderful place and time to grow up.

Jeff--you got it! The computer room had our TRS-80, Apple II, and a piano in there. It was just off to the right of the front door as you're looking at the house. It was a great place to grow up.