“Memories are what makes each person different.”
No jumping into the shower when I woke up this morning as the house was only 65˚. I actually turned on the heat until the house got to 68˚ then I took my shower. When I opened the doors later, outside was warmer than inside. Gracie and I stood together looking out the front door. It is a favorite perch of hers, but there is usually nothing to see. Once in a while a cat strolls across the street and Gracie goes crazy. Someone walks a dog and Gracie barks and jumps. She doesn’t like other dogs except for her friend Cody. I doubt Gracie appreciated it, but the morning smelled sweet, of flowers and cut grass. It will be 70˚ today according to the paper.
Tonight my sister and I are doing The East Somerville Foodie Crawl. We get to go from restaurant to restaurant tasting theirs wares. Many are ethnic including an African, South American and a few Mexican restaurants. One of the restaurants, Mount Vernon Restaurant and Pub, is where my father used to bring us, my mother, sister and I, for dinner when I’d visit for the weekend. They had a twin lobster special to which my dad was partial, actually so was I. We’ll stop there for memory’s sake.
I love connections. They prod the memory drawers. Once I went to a memorial mass for someone in East Boston. I was standing on the steps of the church when I looked across the street. All of a sudden I knew where I was. My great-grandmother and my grand-aunt used to live in a house facing the small park across from the church. I knew that house had narrow stairs going up to the second floor, and the kitchen was on the first floor. I thought of quarters as I always got one when I visited. My great-grandmother died when I was 10. She was 92.
When I drive down the road where there used to be train tracks, I remember the whistle and the clack of the train wheels on the rails. My grandparents lived down the street from those tracks, and I used to look out their front door to see the train. The tracks are gone, but the train-master’s house is still there. Because it is just a house now, I wonder if people notice it has a strange shape and hugs the track.
The long street I walked on back and forth from school for eight years has changed. Many of the houses are gone now, some replaced by apartments. The train tracks are long gone, but it is that old street of my childhood I remember best. I can’t help myself. When I drive it now, I think of what was and name out loud all the things that are gone.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings Both comments and pings are currently closed.
September 16, 2014 at 11:18 am
“Oh I cant keep it in, I cant keep it in I’ve got to whip it out”….and he will at the appropriately named Wang theater on December 4th.
So Kat, Cat the old Moggy now known as Yusuf, will be touring for the first time in 40 years or something AND is coming to Boston. Time for you to load up Gracie and head in to town to see the ex Mr Stevens give Peace Train a go.
While I am thinking music, where is the KTCC exclusive report on the Kate Bush show ?
September 16, 2014 at 1:04 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I can’t find the Kate Bush. I have heard it but once and wanted to listen again. I looked everywhere except under the bed.
Nope, I will not go see Yusuf nee Cat though I do like his songs, even the first Yusuf album. For some reason I just don’t want to trek to Boston. I have gone there once a week for the last month and today am going further north than the city again. It’s the traffic.
Funny first paragraph!
September 16, 2014 at 1:13 pm
one of the ladies KTCC said she was going down the Hammersmith to see Kate and I was hoping that she would share the experience with the Team
September 16, 2014 at 1:17 pm
MDH,
I thought you meant the album I had bought not long ago. I downloaded it but it has gone roaming.
I don’t remember who it was, I will try and find it when I get home tonight.
September 16, 2014 at 1:00 pm
I was curious and looked up East Somerville and the Foodie Crawl. It looks like a great event and made me hungry. I noticed a “Ryan Playground” near the main street on the Foodie Crawl map. Coincidence?
You both have fun and lots of delicious calories!
September 16, 2014 at 1:08 pm
Birgit,
As soon as I read about it, I called my sister. She is always game for whatever I find. I’m bringing my camera and hope for some shots of the restaurants and the dishes.
I had an apple today and that’s it. I’m saving space for the calories!
September 16, 2014 at 1:17 pm
Birgit,
No on the playground.
September 16, 2014 at 2:22 pm
34F here for a short while this morning but it changed quickly and the day got rather pleasant.
They have a food festival like that in a town called Skövde here but it is too far away so I never go there.
I rarely go back in time like that but I did last night when I had visited my newest neighbors and had apple pie and custard 🙂 She has an apartment in my old home town so we talked lots about it. Suddenly I remembered all the tiny grocery stores and how the buildings used to catch fire when people couldn’t afford to buy fire wood but used what they could find instead 🙂
I remembered how people used to change what grocery store they used to shop in when they owed too much money there 🙂 and how people at the end of the month used to borrow cups of sugar,eggs or flour. They also used to borrow gas tokens so they could cook their dinners too 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
September 16, 2014 at 10:11 pm
Christer,
That is far too cold. I was complaining and it was 57˚ here. Tonight, though, was perfect weather for walking at the foo festival.
This was up near where my sister lives, but it only took me an hour and forty five minutes to get there. The Cape has festivals but usually for a single food like scallops.
When you have grown older and moved on, the past is easy to forget, but because my mother lived and sister lives in the town where I grew up and some of my childhood friends still live there, my past and present seem to merge.
It is kind of neat that your new neighbor and you share memories of the same place. I was amazed at how much from your past surfaced.
I hope your birthday was a great one!
September 17, 2014 at 10:24 am
Hi Kat,
No jumping into the shower first thing in the morning for me since I got Piki Dog. He won’t do his business anywhere on my property. He has to be walked first thing in the morning or he’ll poop in my dining room which is not a good thing. I have been out wandering the neighborhood at zero dark thirty every day since then. By the time we return, the house feels much warmer than the outside.
The foodie crawl sounds fascinating. I think a friend of mine did one in Chinatown and another one in Cambridge. We knitting folk also have yarn crawls where we travel from yarn shop to yarn shop on a particular weekend. They print passports and we get them stamped at each shop we visit. There are prizes involved. Some of the shops have sales, some have free gifts of patterns or grab bags of notions. Generally, we spend a lot of money on stash acquisition because you can never have too much yarn. Even when you have more yarn than you can possibly knit in one lifetime. 🙂
Peapod is coming. I’m waiting around for them so I’ll be doing laundry and knitting.
Enjoy the day.
September 17, 2014 at 11:37 am
Hi Caryn,
That would drive me crazy. My friends take care of their friend’s dog when she goes way. Her dog will pea but not poop in the yard so they have to take him for a walk a couple of times a day. Devon, the dog, is quite particular.
The foodie crawl was wonderful, great fun and great food. My sister made it to 2 more restaurants than I did. Small bites add up when you’re having so many of them. The Mexican food was amazing at a couple of the places. I had the best guacamole I’ve ever had and a free tomato gazpacho was heavenly. I’d do it again.
I just got back from my mother itinerary. First was the yearly general election of the library board. No one but the board ever shows up so we vote the slate right back in. Then it was Christmas tree shop for canning jars, napkins, a few Halloween stuff for my sister and a couple of cupcakes pans. Then it was CVS and finally Agway for animal food, cats and the dog.
I have no Peapod today but I also have laundry. It is a busy day.
Have a great day!