When and where were you born? Describe your home, your neighborhood, and the town you grew up in.

July 7, 2015

I was born in Portland, Oregon.  September 18, 1952.  I spent my first year in Portland with my parents, Clyde and Theresa Feuerborn and my older brother Edward Martin, who was 2.5 years older than me.  I moved to Benton City when I was one year old so that my father could work in the Hanford area, where his father and brother, Ernie, had also found employment.  We lived in a couple of different houses, one of which was two houses down from my aunt and uncle, Maxine and Ernie.  When I was five we moved to the house where I would spend all of my growing years, leaving when I was 18, to move to Richland.  The address was 808 Ash St.  In later years they changed the street addresses and my new address was 1108 Ione St.  My PO Box was Box 243 and my phone number was 588-3573.  I will never forget that information.  When we first got our phone we were on a party line with my grandmother, Theresa Feuerborn (and grandpa, but he never talked too much on the phone) and Helen and Slim Sjostrum.  Mom hated it because she swore that every time she was on the phone, grandma would pick it up and listen.  You knew when somebody had received a phone call because the phone would click.  If you picked it up you could listen to other people talking.  If you talked too long the other people on your party would click the phone to let you know to get off!

Our neighborhood was great.  Lot of kids to play with.  We always went outside to play.  You generally were not allowed to to into other kids houses.  You knocked on the door and asked if your friend could come out and play.  If they were busy for a little bit you would sit in the front yard and wait for them.  We played softball, work up, kick ball and other games in the fields.  We built forts, went on long hikes around town.  Walked down to play on the toys in the park.  When my cousin Shelley got a horse I would borrow  Doc Allen's horse, Lady, and we would ride for hours around Benton City.  We would collect empty beer bottles and pop bottles.  We took them to the back of the tavern and sold them for their deposit value and then took the money to the grocery store and bought creme sodas, cheetos and Hostess Berry Pies.

The rest of my siblings were born while we lived in Benton City.  Most in Prosser hospital.

Benton City was a town of 1500.  Small then and small today.  The same businesses buildings that were there in 1952 are still there today.  The business have changed but no new buildings have been built.  No growth at all.  Just some new houses.  50 years and no new business buildings.