Hello Ohio

Over the Rhine: Ohio

The first place I lived was Columbus, Ohio, where I spent my first months sleeping in the drawer of a dresser in my parents apartment. They moved from there into the townhouse where my sister Joanna came home - and possibly Allison - but by the time Melody made her arrival a few months after my seventh birthday, we had moved into "the house on Bernard Road". I remember the townhouse only in pictures, but the house had two maple trees, and a crab apple tree out front - all climbable - and an oak tree - climbable - and three spruce trees - not climbable, but good for making a fort - in the back.

This house also had two stories, and my window opened onto the roof the garage. If I ever have children I am putting bars on all the windows. All. Of. Them. I never fell off the roof, and I don't think I ever went out without permission, but I spent a lot of time thinking about running away and that was how I would have left.

God has always spoken to me more distinctly than most, from what I gather, and by the time I was seven I knew very clearly that there was a call on my life that was going to take me away from my family. In the vernacular of a seven-year-old, I knew I was supposed to "go somewhere and do something." I cried myself to sleep for months wanting to "go" but also recognizing that I couldn't go "yet" because that didn't line up with setting a good example for my unborn little sister or obeying my parents. But every night I stared out that window and God and I talked long and hard.

I shared a birthday with Jed, and Natalie was born a few hours ahead of us ... a day ahead according to the calendars. Our moms all went into labor at the same time, but ended up in different hospitals and none of them knew about the others until we all came back to church a few weeks later.

My first and best friend was Andy, who I've known since before he was born. Jonathan rounded out our trio a few months after that, and the three of us were almost as inseparable as our mothers. I haven't talked to Jonathan since we were 9, but I've run into Andy a few times throughout the years, and we reconnected on Facebook in 2015 or 2016, after his mother found me while trying to reconnect with my parents.

I am told that I have always been a little unusual in my interactions. My mom would invite friends over to play and I would get them settled and entertained, then go off to another part of the house to do my own thing. Mom was mortified, but I was confused. Why did it matter if I played WITH them, given that she was the one who invited them over and they were happy with the entertainment I had provided?

This one doesn't have much music above, in large part because music was intentional and constant, but rather disassociated from the rest of life. We listened to lots of Maranatha kids, this particular Psalty the singing songbook album, and Bullfrogs and Butterflies until they wore out. I hated Bullfrogs and Butterflies. We listened to every Wee Sing Album ever recorded, but especially Silly Songs, and sang John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmit at least a dozen times on every road trip. Mom's philosophy was that you couldn't fight if you were singing, so we had to sing while we did chores - especially chores such as dishes where we had to work in close quarters.

On a closing note, my dad worked at the vet school for Ohio State University. He was a registered biological photographer, which is to say he took medical photos for the professors and turned them into projections for presentations. Microphotography was his specialty, though he's always preferred nature photography. He's also a HUGE University of Michigan fan, so he would troll the campus the week before the big game every year wearing full gear to work every day. Mom thought he was going to die. I thought it was brilliant. #nowyouknow