The Front Stairs at Night

When I was young it never really got that dark around my house. Of course as a kid I thought it was dark, but since I lived in the city there were actually lights on all the time. I have strong memories of gazing out my bedroom window at night watching the alley behind the house, which was lit up by the back door light of a neighbor's house. Another bedroom had a streetlight right outside the window, so even with the shade drawn it never really got that dark. 

I have lived in this house now for longer than any other place I have been. There are no streetlights or nearby neighbors, and no lights over either door. Walking outside at night it is actually dark, and on clear nights the stars are bright and the milky way stretches across the sky. Over the course of the year Orion rises and falls over the field, and the big and little dippers turn over above the house. 

It's one of those things I wonder about sometimes when I come home in the dark or step outside during the night. How did that little kid, staring out his window at night craning his neck to get a glimpse of the lights downtown, ever end up here?