"No Place Like Home..."

Personally, I did not grow up in a gated community like David Guterson talks about. None of the houses looked the exact same, none of them were painted the same color, and none of them had security guards at the gate. However, there were a few 'developments' where the houses were the same model, but were only built that way to lower the cost for the companies who built them. I grew up on one of the main streets of my town, and I could go to and from my house as I pleased. I believe that setting regulations like they do in Green Valley, are outrageous and I'm really glad that I never had to deal with those.
Like in the communities that Guterson talks about, we did have a cerfew. Back at home, by 11pm during the summer, you had to be on your property. Althought most times they didn't exactly enforce this, it was supposed to be for the young kids of the community in order to keep them off the streets. This in my opinion was a fairly good idea, and was somewhat able to prevent minor crimes which could occur during the night.

Home

1. Having snow (sledding, snowball fights, making snowmen)
2. Raking leaves and then jumping in the pile.
3. Comfortable, homey feel.
4. Tenting out in the backyard.
5. Being able to curl up on the couch in front of the fire and watch a movie with friends.

Sledding:
When I was little my brother, my friends, and I would go sledding down the hill in my back yard. This one time, I was sitting on the sled with one of my friends, and my brother decided to give us a big push down the hill. We used to have a small pine tree at the bottom of the hill. While sledding down the hill, one of us lost control of the sled, and we ran right into the tree. All of a sudden, you hear his big "thwack," a sound you would only hear on tv. No one was hurt, but when we looked at the tree, there was a huge dent in the trunk, and it was completely bent at an angle, and we have the whole thing on video.