“When we were children, all the things our guardians threw away were perceived as nothing more than trash. How I wish that I could rummage through the discarded remains of my past so I can piece it all together again.

If you grew up in a small town like I did, old dirt roads and street corners where houses once stood may have a lot of meaning for you. For me, it was the corner of North Ellison Avenue and Arapaho Street in El Reno, Oklahoma. North Ellison Avenue represented a lot back then. In fact, it was my grandmothers house that once stood at 719 North Ellison Avenue in the far northwest bottoms of El Reno, Oklahoma. Her name was Netter Overstreet, born in 1894. It became the centerpiece and focal point where my Oklahoma childhood stories began. It was where my siblings and I first arrived from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1964, where dirt roads and outhouses were new to us. Right next-door I’d spend time with an elderly blind lady named Mrs. Nelson, helping her feed her chickens and gather eggs. From that street corner I would walk down the block to Burton Park and enjoy my childhood dragonfly summers.

Having arrived to El Reno, Oklahoma in 1964 at age five, the experience growing up was my own, viewed solely from my childhood lens. As a young boy, I took comfort in the familiar surroundings that so long defined my part of the world—on the street where we lived among friends neighbors and community.” —Maurice Johnson