Before You Were Born

This is an account of my life before I have children, so someday they can read through these pages and know how different it was.

I was born August 19^th, 1987 to Steve and Cindy Newberg from Iron, Minnesota. My brother was born a few years before me Tyler John. We had a wonderful childhood growing up in the woods of northern Minnesota, I couldn't have asked for anything better. Grandma and Grandpa Newberg lived in Mt. Iron where we spent a lot of time. Grandma and Grandpa Linders would come for summers and stay at our house, until they moved here for good buying a house in Eveleth. Then Grandma BooBoo and Grandpa Young lived right through the trail from our house.

Our family was close to us and our friends as well. I grew up with the Stahlbergs, the kids Carmin who was my age, David who is a couple years younger than my brother, Tyler, and Megan who is a few years younger than Carm and I. Our family's cabins where right next to each other on Lake Vermilion and our mother's Julie and Cindy worked together as beautician's.

Then a when I was about five years old the Kozumpliks moved in up the hill from us. They brought four children, twins Kasey and Carrie who were my age and Tyler (nicknamed Tig) who was my brother Tyler's age, and Travis who was a couple years older than Ty and Tig. We all became good friends running the woods of Iron and playing in the river behind the house and the sand pit across the road. Building tree forts and playing hide and go seek in the woods. Their parents Annie and Tom were also good friend with my parents. We'd have parties and big bon fires.

I remember one winter celebration where Trav was driving our snowmobile pulling Tig and Ty, when the throttle stuck! Trav bailed and Ty bailed leaving Tig to hang on till he realized no one was driving the snowmobile! The sled flew up and ended up hitting a tree luckily no one was on the snowmobile or the sled behind when that happened.

Or there was the time we caught the most enormous snapping turtle! We got it in a gunny sack and pulled it all the way up the huge hill and down to our house. Where we put it in the huge old milk basin and caught fish watching it snap them up and eat it. Oh were our father's mad at us when they got home from work we ended up having to recapture the turtle and bring it back to the river. Dad still says that was one of the biggest snappers he's ever seen.

Another time my brother shot a skunk, a very large skunk actually. He decided to air it out by hanging it on my mother's clothes line. Well she had a fit and called Dad, he came home pissed off but laughing at my brother's mischievous doings. They disposed of the stinky skunk together.

We had another neighbor on Little Wolf Road. Her name was Elaine Santi, I spent many afternoons having tea and playing with her little poodle. Also we'd go to church with her and her niece and nephews, Julie, Billy and Bobby.

I also spent a lot of time with Grandma BooBoo and Grandpa Young. I'd ride in the plow truck with him, riding the three wheelers, going to Rainy Lake in Canada, driving every vehicle he owned since I was seven years old and able to reach the peddles. Grandma and Grandpa were a huge part of my life I started learning Spanish when I was about ten years old with them. I cannot explain how much I miss my Grandpa Young, he recently passed away in August. Not a day goes by without my gaze wondering to the picture of us on Rainy with him holding a 25 lb northern that was bigger than me at the time, and remembering all the wonderful memories we made together.

So many memories of those woods, so many tree forts built many many games of hide and go seek, tons of fish caught out of the river, and lots of parties. But I cannot leave out the sad parts of my father's battles with cancer, melanoma, I was five when the first time he was diagnosed with stage 3. Then a year later it came back stage 4 meaning it had metastasized into his lymph nodes. Thankfully I can say he has been in remission for 17 years! I'm so proud of him!

Another sad part was the failing of my parents' marriage when I was 12 years old. It was very difficult on the whole family. Now my grandpa Newberg is on hospice and is told he has less than 6 months to live, I haven't been able to process this yet in my mind, I'm more still in shock.

Stay tuned for more!!