“Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart.”
It’s close to 11 am, and the temperature has risen to 35°, but the wind makes it feel much colder. Gracie and I were awakened today by the sounds of blowers from my neighbor’s yard. He and his men are doing spring clean up. They came here next, and it gave me hope when I saw the garden beds clear of dead leaves and branches. My herb garden already has some growth. I showed Sebastian, my neighbor and landscaper, where I wanted a raised bed for a few vegetables. He thought the spot perfect. The men removed all the dead pine branches from the backyard and blew the deck clear of leaves. It may still be cold, but when clean-up begins, I think of a warm day, a sunny deck and flowers. I’m holding on to that thought with a grasp so tight my knuckles are white.
When my sister came and stayed for a week after I had had my surgery, she experienced much the same as I had in my old town where she lives now. Sheila lived on the cape for a long time but has been gone even longer. We drove familiar streets which now have unfamiliar views. Her grammar school sits empty, no longer used. The printing shop where she worked for so long was torn down to make way for a park which is right by the water. The park is an odd one with small hills and only a few benches. She was a bit amazed by all the changes. I knew exactly how she felt.
The square in the town where I grew up has changed. A whole block has been torn down. It used to hold small shops and stores like the shoe repair and a drug store. At first I was horrified because my childhood is wound around the memories of those stores. I have since adjusted to an adult view and have saved my childhood square in special memory drawers. Many of the old buildings still remain, but they have became something else. If I had grandchildren, I would walk them through the square and bore them with stories of what was.
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March 28, 2011 at 11:42 am
This week the city’s tearing down the IC RRDepot where I worked as a very young man. I’ve tons of great memories relating to that building, but, they can stay just as memories. The building was an example of one of the worst periods of American architecture we’ve ever had (early 1950’s) and it can’t go soon enough for me. The depot this one had replaced, and it’s adjacent freight depot, which burned down several decades ago, were stunning.
http://www.jonrfd.com/page16.html
It’s sad that time and treasure weren’t used to save them.
March 29, 2011 at 10:33 am
John,
The value of old buildings was lost for a long while. Here in Massachusetts people knew to save the historical ones like Paul Revere’s House and the Old Manse but the best examples of local period architecture were torn down to make room for modern buildings many with no character. I am happy to see some of the buildings in my old town look exactly the same as they did in the late 1800’s but I still lament the loss of so many.
March 28, 2011 at 11:50 am
Hi Kat,
Telling younger people what used to be where their familiar sights are now is a sure way to know that you have gotten too old. Whenever I hear myself doing that, I remember my parents and grandparents doing the same thing and I remember my eyes glazing over in mid young person eye-roll. 😀
Have a great day.
March 29, 2011 at 10:37 am
Hi Caryn,
I’d like to think that connecting the generations includes where great-grandmother lived and shopped.
We are reconstructing the family tree and kicking ourselves that we didn’t listen to my grandfather, who was the best repository for family stories.
I remember my mother showing us the houses where she grew up. I had a million questions. Even now I sometimes drive by one of them and remember my mother and her stories.
Hope you get some sun today!
March 28, 2011 at 1:44 pm
It did feel much warmer here than it actually was when I came home.
The place I grew up at still looks much the same, but all grocery stores are gone. But the place we moved to when I was around 16-17 has changed a lot and for the worse too. They have build new apartment buildings everywhere, so there´s almost no green areas left and it´s easy to see what the neighbors on the opposite side are doing in the evenings 🙂 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
March 29, 2011 at 10:38 am
Christer,
It is still cold here and the nights are the worst.
The cape was filled with trees and open spaces when I first moved here. It was the seashore. It is now suburbia, and I’m sorry for the change though I do live in a house which wasn’t around before 1977.
March 28, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Whenever I go back to an old neighborhood where we lived when I was a kid or a teen I am amazed at how small everything looks now. In almost every small town the stores on the town square have all been forced out of business by either the Wal-Mart or the owners died and their children, like us, don’t want to run the family retail business. Their parents worked six days a week from morning until night, staying open late on Thursday nights, to eek out a middle class living. My children’s eyes glaze over whenever I start to tell them about who used to run what store.
March 29, 2011 at 10:41 am
Bob,
My old town has very few of the chain stores as there are a couple of malls not all that far away. The square does have a few new restaurants including an India one. That amazed me as the China Moon was the only ethnic one in town for decades.
My old movie theater looks exactly the same outside but is now a live theater. I love going there.