All the neighborhoods in Eugene are great depositories of stories. For me, the stories of Crest Drive are those of childhood, blackberries and deer, peaceful summer days of tall grass and a gentle wind through sprawling oak savannah.

Rising north off 29th Ave. where Crest residents descend to fill their cupboards at Market of Choice, as far west as Chambers, as far east as Willamette, and up southwardly to Ridgewood Dr, where I lived my first 18 years, the Crest Drive Neighborhood is a haven of hilly lots. But it’s not all hillside living. The jumbled hills rising up from the valley floor towards the KVAL television towers have flats and slopes, exposed copses and wooded dells, small lots and big, new construction and old.

“Up Crest,” “out Blanton,” and “just off Lorane Highway,” say the satisfied residents of this area. Indeed I’m sure, homeowners here are by and large quite satisfied with their choice of quarters, minutes from shopping and downtown, but separated from the hustle-and-bustle in a way unique to other areas of town, so much so that it seems more than just geography but also time, as if living out Crest was like living just a stone’s throw from a general store in an idyllic country village out of some americana of yesteryear. Trundling school busses, smoke from chimneys, space between houses.

Maybe I’m just waxing sentimental. This was the neighborhood of my Eugene childhood, a place I love dearly like it were part of me, a place we’re more than qualified to share with you.

And we’d love to.