After living in several places after Green Valley Drive and college (Chicago area, Los Angeles area and now the Seattle area), I have come to realize that that we all had an amazingly great childhood there; dare I say a near Ward and June Cleaver existence.
It probably had something to do with the isolation of our street and Farmview and the fact that there were sooo many kids. I think I counted once and came up with 52 kids in 18 households on Green Valley alone.
There were enough of us boys around that we could play football and baseball at the end of Farmview among ourselves. We had to learn how to settle all our own arguments (no Little League umps or parents in sight) and still had a really good time. There were also the thousands of acres of open land that we could roam around in.
My parents had a railroad bell that would call us home for dinner or whatever and you could hear it for miles around. I remember once being at the top of hill overlooking Hodel's farm more than halfway to Saxonburg Road and heard the bell. My parents wondering why I was so late getting home.
Another thing and this may also be due to our isolation, there were many activities that we could do locally and none of it cost any money. We could fish in the stream running through Hodel's, ski, toboggan and ice skate all for free and very nearby.
I have told people everywhere I have lived that I had probably had more fun in winter. I don't think that they believe me. We could ski in our yards and the fields at Hodel's. We could ice skate on the pond at the farm or the flooded field in Fox Chapel. We could toboggan down the first golf tee of the Fox Chapel Field club (probably the only time peons like us could go there). And all for free! Anyway, in many ways, it seems now to have been nearly ideal.
Tom
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