1984-89 - House In Lorain

I grew up in a family owned house on North Ridge Road in Lorain Ohio. The house sat on what was once my mothers family's land. I lived in the house with my parents on the first floor, and the second floor was rented out to other people or families. As you entered the house from the side door, you went into the dining room, which as I remember, had a multi-color blue rug. Off the left of the dining room was a small kitchen and eating area and the door to the back yard. The living room was located off the right side of the dining room. Through the living room you could take an immediate right down stairs into the basement, a right into my room, or straight into my parents room or out to the front porch. At this time, I can't remember where exactly the bathrooms were, I think there was one next to the stairs to the basement. Out front there was a covered front porch and what seemed to be, to me, the biggest pine tree ever. There was a large back yard with an old barn all the way in the back. Next to the barn was a small garden that had grapes. I remember the grapes specifically beacuse I know I got stung a few times by bee's while picking them. Just past the grape vines was what we always thought was an electric fence. I don't know if it was really electrified, or if that was just something my mom told me to keep me away from the pair of Doberman Pinschers. As you can imagine, I was not allowed to go near that fence.
Because we also had such a large yard I always had all kinds of pets. We had an outside female cat named Scott. It seemed like every other month Scott was pregnant again and we had to find homes for another litter of her kittens. One time I got to keep two of the kittens. We named them Butterscotch and Socks. Unfortunatly Butterscotch was hit by a car on the street in front of the house, and Socks was accidently run over in our driveway by our renter. We eventually got rid of that cat after she had one too many litters for my mom to handle. I also remember we had a male terrier dog named Ashley. I don't remember too much about that dog except that he died one night after a really bad thunderstorm. He was left outside and got scared and tangled himself up in his chain. We were trapped because of the storm at my Grandma Cotton's house and couldn't get home to him in time. My last dog in that house was a Black Lab I named Princess. We had for a few years until we moved to our new house and we had to get rid of her because she was an outside dog and barked too much for our new neighbors.

1984 - Early Aaron Information

I was born on June 27, 1984 at 6:33pm at Amherst Hospital in Amherst Ohio. My parents are Troy and Sue Ellen Dotson (Cotton). I am their eldest child, my younger sister Rachel Lynn was born 5 years later in 1989. My fathers parents are Roy and Jewel Dotson (both still alive at time of writing). My mothers parents were Ben and Gloria Cotton (Grandpa Ben passed away when I was 2 in 1986, and Grandma Gloria when I was 15 in 2000). My father has one brother, Keith, and one sister, Sabrina. My mother has 3 brothers, David, Paul, Joel, and one sister, Kathy. My cousins are (oldest to youngest): Matt, Lauren, Jewel, Sarah, Olivia, Bella and Allison.
The Cotton Family has lived in Northern Ohio since the early 1900's, and the Dotson's moved from Eastern Kentucky to Northern Ohio in the 1950's. Both of my parents and their siblings attended Amherst schools and all except for my Aunt Kathy lived near Amherst when I was little. My Aunt Kathy has lived in Northwestern Indiana my entire life, and worked as a librarian.
When I was born my dad worked as a manager at a local grocery store and my mother was a clerk and a fashion clothes store. We lived a house that was owned by my mother's family located in Lorain, Ohio. It was an old 2 story house that her great grandparents and aunt had lived in.The house was almost if not over 100 years old when I lived there. It had a big back yard and a big barn in the back yard. In the front yard stood a massive pine tree that could be seen from almost a mile away. To me, as a kid, that tree seemed like it was 1000 feet tall. That tree was cut down by the people who bought that house after we moved out in 1990.

My first 25 years

I have been trying to write for the past 6 months about my life so that my children and family can someday look back at my life. I tried writing with Microsoft word, changing my style or my methods a few times, but it never really worked out. So I have decided that since I have been writing a blog about my journey through fatherhood, I would try and keep a blog and track all of my stories this way. Hopefully I can keep up with this and get more than one thing wrote. I am going to be writing about the first 25 years of my life, and each blog will be a different memory from 1984 to 2009. I will also try to put a date to the blog so I can go back later on and compile them into some sort of book. Lets get started.