Day 201
Today while out and about (or if I was Canadian I’d say I was oot and aboot) … I drove down memory lane.
Oleander Avenue to be exact. This is the street I grew up on. And aside from the people being different (because, after all, it’s been 50 years) and a few trees gone … the street looked pretty much the same as it did in the 1960’s. Tidy brick ranches with carports and some newer garages. Far fewer trees than I remember but still nicely taken care of lawns and gardens.
I drove slowly southward from Dempster Street (envision a very busy 4 lane “highway”) down about 12 houses and then drove slower still. There are 24 houses on either side of the street in this neighborhood. And as I approached 8639 (#17 from the busy street) I passed the good house for trick-or-treating (they always gave full-sized candy bars), Dorothy’s house (they had a color TV set before we did so she’d let me come down and watch the Wizard of Oz every year. I’d sit on the floor in their living room with Feathers (the cat) on my lap and watch spellbound. I don’t think I moved an inch in those 2 some hours – any time I watched it!
I passed the house where the kid died of a brain aneurism when I was in 5th grade. Nice kid. I passed the house where my first “boyfriend” lived … we were 5! Next to Dorothy lived the Sebastians … Mr. S. was a very portly fellow and during one block party we were invited down to his basement and he had a BAR! I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet!
Between Mr. S and us were the Freemans. Sue was an only child and kind of an oddball. But less oddball and more lonely than anything I imagine now. I don’t think I was a very nice neighbor or friend to her. Shame on me. Her mom was a dancer and super odd. She wore diamond cat frames and was always walking around in green tights and pink tutus … or she was barely wearing anything and sunbathing. I think all the neighborhood ladies thought it was scandalous! Sue’s dad lost his hand in an industrial accident so had a metal claw hand. He was an amazing gardener but was always VERY scary and I tried not to be around him much.
Across the street were the Knapics … Peggy was my brother’s age but my sister’s best friend. They didn’t have much use for me (the little sister) but let me hang around when they were putting on plays or pretending to be the Beatles. She had the BEST basement because it had a BATHROOM in it! Their house was just like ours but reversed and yet it always seemed so different. I loved going over to Peggy’s room because it was always quiet and clean and tidy. She loved coming over to our house cuz it was noisy and wild and turtles and dogs were running around and the screen door slammed 10,000 times a day.
My house looked the same … sans the brick patio and shed (now a garage) and wonderful silver poplar that shaded the back and the big silver maple that I spent my summers in, out front, reading. But, more or less, it looked the same. I could envision 2 dachshunds lying on the blacktop driveway sunning themselves!
I noticed the mailbox was no longer at the corner … the one I’d lean against when I smelled beef kidney stew cooking 7 houses north (at MY house) and knew I had to keep walking another 5 blocks to Judy’s house (no way was I eating that stuff!).
As I drove past the houses I wondered what happened to the Browns and the Habers and all the other families that used to live the rest of the way down my block. I’d pass their houses 4 times a day in elementary school, I wiped out on my bike in front of many of their houses as well (I was a daredevil on my bike!).
I drove the route to my old school which is now gone, replaced by a lovely park and big playground. Sad … but at least it wasn’t made into more houses. The prairie is gone … that was made into more homes.
I stopped at the corner near school where I found the dead baby bird and remembered walking all the way home to get a shoe box to put him in for burial. I just couldn’t leave him on the sidewalk – all crumpled and broken. I wonder, now, how many times I was late to school because I had to save an animal or find it a coffin!
And then I had a good laugh when I saw the thing that made my mom – in the middle of one sultry summer night – run around and wake us up yelling that there was a tornado coming. It was the water tower!
In any case … it was a nice drive down memory lane.