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"My family asked me if there was anything special I&amp;#039;d like to do the Saturday before the Sunday I left to go home. What I would love to do, I told them, was go up to Altadena, then Pasadena, and eat lunch in my favorite restaurant I haven&amp;#039;t eaten in in 25 years. It is called Green Street. It is not on Green Street. It used to be on Green Street. I think it may have been one of the things that made up my mind that this was where I&amp;#039;d like to live, if I had to move here. I went kicking and screaming to California for my then\u2013husband&amp;#039;s job. Unbeknownst to me, I would begin really writing there. As in, every day. As in, even for pay. Maggie grew up there, down that long wooded driveway. She is a dyed\u2013in\u2013the\u2013wool Californian now. I had not imagined the feelings that would ride with me up to Altadena, like ghosts on an amusement park ride. We went to Webster&amp;#039;s, which is a kind of everything store we used to frequent for everything, as everyone from Altadena did. Prescriptions, video tapes (!), toys, a post office, a liquor store. D\u00A9j vu was smiling while we were there. Driving up Lake Street to get to Altadena, I pointed out where Memaw used to work; a tall building where she was a receptionist also in charge of office supplies before anyone had a thought about Staples. We drove by a small squat office, where I began my career at the Pasadena Weekly. It was so thrilling and fun to me. Those people in the office were smart, funny, curious. My work there transformed my brain to see everything as interesting, every person a long list of stories. We went by our house with the long wooded driveway. It never could be seen from the street, which was another plus on Altadena&amp;#039;s part to get me there. High metal gates guard the house from the street: it was once part of an estate, I&amp;#039;m told. But the gates were closed changed and locked. We drove to where Maggie&amp;#039;s father lived, after we divorced. All the dropping off and picking up of Maggie. Everything came back in a physical feeling; fear, sadness, confusion. D\u00A9j vu frowned. Later we went to a park, and Zach and Nate swung up and down yelling Higher, Higher as either parent pushed. It was verdant. I thought, What a nice place to grow up. Then I realized that I did a lot of growing up here, too. D.G. Fulford is the author of Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years with Mom, written with her mother Phyllis Greene. She is also the co-founder of TheRememberingSite.org. You can find her at DGFulford.com. Photo credit: Marcia Smilack "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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