My house in Petaluma, California

How many different places have you lived in your life? Some people (not too many) live in the house in which they were born for their entire lives. Other people, sometimes because of work, live in many different places, including different countries and states. Have you counted up the number of different places you have lived? Did you like most of them? Why do you live where you live now? Do you like it? Would you live there if you could live anywhere at at all? Where would you live if you could live anywhere at all?

I think I have lived in 18 different places, including three different states:

I was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and lived there until I was about two. I don’t remember it at all!Then I moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, where I grew up and went to school until I moved to college. Lynn is a northern suburb of Boston, about 12 miles away. It was lower middle class — maybe middle class. It has a pretty run-down downtown that was thriving in the 50s and 60s. I lived in the dorms at college in Boston for the next four years. I was pretty near Fenway Park, although I never went there during those years.After college I moved back in with my parents in Lynn for six months or so before moving in with my boyfriend in Somerville, a suburb of Boston that has been gentrified in recent years.My boyfriend and I then moved to Stuart, Florida, which is on the east coast of Florida, about 100 miles north of Miami. He got a job there because he wanted to move to a warm climate. I stayed there a year and then we broke up, and I moved back to Massachusetts.I then got a apartment with a college friend in Brighton, Massachusetts, right outside of Boston proper.When she went off to grad school, I moved into an old house in Allston, right near Brighton, with three MIT graduates who knew someone I knew. I don’t even remember how I hooked up with these guys. And I don’t mean “hooked up.” They were friends, and I rented the cheap, small room on the top floor. I lived there for a few years.For some reason, I was always attracted to Framingham, Massachusetts, a western suburb, about 45 minutes from Boston. It is a nice place with a lot of shopping and restaurants. I worked there for a short while, but most of the time I lived there I had a 45-minute commute to work. I lived in a studio in a modern apartment complex with gold shag carpeting and brick walls. I was there for three years.I then moved to a one-bedroom, also in an apartment complex in Framingham. It was very nice, a first floor, where ducks would visit me on my deck. It is there that I met my ex-husband by the pool.We shortly moved to Natick, right near Framingham, to another apartment complex, probably not as nice, but I wanted to move to Natick because you could get Sports Channel on cable, and I wanted to watch the Boston Celtics!Shortly before we got married, we bought a townhouse in Worcester, a little farther west of Boston, and less expensive than Framingham or Natick. We lived there when the kids were born (in Framingham). A couple of years later, we bought a house in North Grafton, a little town near Worcester, kind of rural. It was an odd location: a combination of rural and industrial with four new ranch houses at one end. We lived in the first one. The builder actually ran off before it was quite finished, and we had to pave the driveway among other finishing touches. We had 3/4 of an acre in the back, which was a hill and necessitated a riding mower. There were no sidewalks, and it wasn’t a good place for kids. We lost money when we sold this house, which was kind of a pretty house. I had made friends in Westboro, another western suburb a little west of Framingham, through my small children. Westboro was very nice, and I wanted to live there. So we rented a three-bedroom townhouse there, and the kids went to a prestigious preschool there, where you had to line up in your car early in the morning of registration to make sure you got your kids in!I had never liked the cold or the snow, and had actually had interviews in both Florida and California before I got married. I almost moved back to Florida, Miami area, but I didn’t. So I asked my husband at the time to look for a job in a warm climate. He was in telecom, and there were lots of jobs back then. He almost took a job in Chicago.  Not exactly a warm climate, but such a great city, I was almost looking forward to going there. Then he almost took a job in Minneapolis. Yup, I realize we are getting colder and colder. But he told me the driveways were heated and there were heated walkways downtown. We didn’t go.  I was actually thinking of the Carolinas, Georgia, or Florida when I asked for a warmer climate. I had been to California a couple of times, but it seemed too far away from home. Well, he got a job offer in Petaluma, California, which of course we had never heard of. He liked what he saw, so I then went out there with him to take a  look. I liked it too. So we moved to Petaluma. Petaluma is a lovely city with a small town feel. It has an old downtown where some movies (including Peggy Sue Got Married) were filmed. It had a 50s feel. It is in wine country 40 or so miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge and just north of Marin County. It is in Sonoma County. It is a great place.We rented a nice house in a good part of Petaluma, and the kids started school there, my daughter in first grade and my son in kindergarten.After a year of renting, we bought a house in Petaluma near what was supposed to be one of the best elementary schools in town. It was a great place.Several years later, the marriage ended. I moved again, but I stayed in Petaluma, close by where I was. I bought a smaller, older house in Petaluma, where I lived for nearly 20 years. That was the longest I had ever lived anywhere. My son lived there for a while before moving in with his dad. My daughter lived there until she left home to skate with Disney on Ice, and she still came home when she was off work.My daughter and her husband, in about 2017 or 2018  were ready to get off the road, and they thought about several places to live, but decided they might want to work for their company headquarters, which is in Florida, south of Tampa on the West coast of Florida. They bought a house before it was built in Riverview, about 20 miles south of Tampa. They were on tour, so I signed the papers. I had decided I would move to wherever they moved since my kids are my only family. My son stayed in California. He is still in Petaluma. I moved my things when my daughter and her husband moved theirs, but I stayed in Petaluma, trying to sell my house, I finally gave up and moved into their house to babysit it while they were on tour. Then Covid happened. I won’t go into that whole story, but I lived with them in Riverview for about 9 or 10 months.  And my house in Petaluma eventually sold.A little over five years ago, I moved ten minutes from my daughter and son-in-law (and now granddaughter) to a villa in Wimauma where I have a lake (man made, and actually a pond) with pretty birds — and alligators.Another shot of my house in Petaluma

I can’t say which was my favorite. I can say I am shocked I stayed at my old house in Petaluma for nearly 20 years, since I was ready to sell it after a year. It was such a mess when I moved in, and it needed so much, I never did most of the updating it needed. And the neighborhood was kind of meh, although there were a lot of nice people around. I especially remember the group of us who met every morning in the greenway with our dogs. And I could walk to a strip mall along the greenway to a Starbucks in about 10 minutes. When I redid the living room, it was very nice, and it had a brick fireplace. I didn’t have a lanai, but I had a private front yard that was sunny, and I would sit there every afternoon, like I do now in my lanai. The backyard was fenced, but shady.

Do I like where I live now? I like the villa, and I like the lanai and the view. I do not like Florida. I don’t fit in politically. I cannot walk to anything here. I can’t even drive to much of anything. Anything good is 45 minutes away. Except my daughter — and that is why I am here. I sure miss my son, and I do visit California.

Where would I live if I could live anywhere?? Well, wanting to be near family aside….

I often wished I could live in Paris. Now I hear that Spain and Portugal are popular for those moving out of the United States. Costa Rica is appealing. I have been to Paris, but not the other places I mentioned. But when I think of where I would love to live, one place comes up. About 25 years ago, I took my daughter to a skating camp in Southern California — El Segundo to be exact. I remember walking along Redondo Beach, and maybe Hermosa and Manhattan Beaches and wishing I could live in the houses that were along those beaches. I will never forget that. I guess if I had millions of dollars and could buy my kids and me houses there, and no one needed a job, that is where I would go!