In 1941 my parents had a house built on South Decatur Street. They lived in this house when I was born. The reason they built on this street was because my Dad worked at Gates Rubber Company and South Decatur was a short drive to Mississippi and Santa Fe Drive which was the location of Gates Rubber Company at that time.

Across the street from where we lived was an older house. I would guess that it was built in the early 1900's. This house had three gigantic elm trees in the front yard and a large weeping willow in the back. This was the first house in the block. As Denver grew more and more houses were built on this street. This street grew up and matured at the same time I grew up.

One of my favorite past times was to watch the tractors dig the basement holes, lay the foundation and build a house on this foundation. The neighbor kids and I had many enjoyable hours playing in the mounds of dirt and the houses in various stages of completion. I can still smell the fresh pine smell emitting from a freshly framed house.

As the neighborhood expanded it needed city sidewalks and a new asphalt street. This project occupied most of a summer for me. I remember them moving the houses shut off valves closer to the houses because the new street was going to be wider and the valves could not be under the street or the new sidewalk. Each house on the block needed a hole dug about six feet long from the shut off valve going closer to the house. These holes were dug by a construction worker at the time. I don't know why they didn't use a tractor. I spent hours watching this worker dig these holes in front of each house and move the valve farther back on the yard. The forms for the sidewalks were installed and it seemed like a hundred cement trucks came to fill the forms for the walks. It didn't take much to entertain me when I was young.

After the street and sidewalks was finished we discovered roller skates. The kind that you would clamp onto your street shoes and hope they would stay on for a while. The street had a small incline and many hours were spent skating up to the corner and then coasting down to the other corner. We must have done that thousands of times. When you would finally take off your skates your little feet would continue to tingle and feel strange for a period of time.

This street also had a business. It was the neighborhood Kool-Aid stand. I wonder if the neighbors ever got tired of hearing us calling out; "Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid, ice cold Kool-Aid." This was a residential street and we never did that well because there was not that much outside traffic. Sometimes I think some neighbors bought Kool-Aid just to shut us up for a while.

This street has many memories for me. These are just a few. I lived on this street for twenty years or more. After my parents passed on in the eighties, I lived in the house for a couple of years. I could see the neighborhood declining and decided to sell. I occasionally drive down the street and recall the years I spent on the street where I grew up.