“Round my hometown, memories are fresh.”
The rain started yesterday, and it is still raining. It is a heavy rain. I can hear it plinking on the dogs’ outside metal bowl and pounding on the roof and windows. The dogs went out then immediately turned around to come back inside. They are now napping away their trauma. The house is chilly, sweatshirt and socks chilly. It is a perfect day to nestle under a blanket, drink coffee and read.
When I was a kid, today would have been the greatest disappointment. I’d have been stuck with no adventures, with being house bound. My bike would have stayed in the cellar. I’d wind up reading in my room, my refuge, and, in the afternoon, watching Creature Double Feature, the only redeeming piece of the day. Saturday supper was universal, the same all over, hot dogs, beans and brown bread. The hot dogs, covered in mustard and piccalilli, were in a toasted roll. I never ate the beans. I did eat the brown bread slathered in butter. It was the only bread I ever ate which came from a can. I bought a can of it recently. I didn’t like it. I was a little bit sad.
When I was growing up, my town had some factories. I remember the box factory by the railroad tracks. Once in a while, I’d see mostly men sitting outside on the steps smoking. Across from Farm Hill was a chemical factory which I remember and later a pharmaceutical factory, E.L. Patch. I only know about the Patch factory as I have an old postcard of the building. I don’t remember it. The building was beside a different part of the tracks than the box factory. When the trains still ran, I remember seeing train cars parked beside the building. Stoneham was a shoe town. The town seal even has a high top shoe on it. A shoe factory was right below uptown and was still operating when I was a kid, but not anymore. Now it houses condominiums.
I seldom go back to my town, but when I do, I take a nostalgia ride. I ride through the streets which were my walk home from school. I pass the house in the project where we lived before we moved to the cape. I drive by my grammar school, the park where I used to ice skate, the zoo, what once was the dairy farm and through all the other familiar streets which were so important in my life. Sights and sounds jump out of my memory drawers. Time stops, and it is almost as if I were there, and I’m young again.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
September 21, 2024 at 4:59 pm
Hi Kat,
Today is mostly sunny with a high temperature of 95°. My daughter went into the pool, but it’s too chilly for me.
When I was a kid in Dallas Texas, the only manufacturing plants were a Ford assembly plant in East Dallas and a GM assembly plant that’s still operating in Arlington Texas. The Ford plant closed years ago. Ford cars manufactured there had rear window stickers that read, “Made in Texas by Texans”. Most of the economy in the area back then as now is based on banking and insurance. Over in Ft. Worth they had a huge General Dynamics airplane factory located at the old Carswell Air Force Base. That’s where Convair built the B-36 bombers. If you have ever seen the 1954 movie, “Strategic Air Command”, with Jimmy Stewart. The plant is now owned by Lockheed Martin. They still build F-22 fighters and F-35 fighters.
As we approach November 5th I worry about what will happen if Kamala Harris is elected President. Trump’s MAGA nuts are armed to the teeth and he will probably order them to attack. These nut jobs could make January 6th 2021 look like kids stuff. Trump is already laying the groundwork for a Harris victory. He already claims the election is rigged against him. He’s said many times he will only accept the outcome if he wins. His speeches are becoming more erratic and filled with ridiculous lies, but his faithful believers eat up his every word as if he is their savior.
September 21, 2024 at 7:35 pm
Hi Bob,
It is still raining and is only 60°. It is supposed to rain all through the night as well. I’m not complaining. We hadn’t had rain in weeks.
The cape has no manufacturing plants but it does have Cape Cod potato chips and a few breweries. Where I grew up actually had, in the early 1900’s, a car manufacturing plant and a motorcycle factory. I only knew about them because of a book published by the historical society. The cars had a unique feature: you could lift the chassis to fix the motor. The first plant closed and was taken over by Shawmut Motors which sold quite expensive cars for its day. They were starting to get popular when the plants burned down. It was never rebuilt.
I have seen that movie with Jimmy Stewart. I remember he was a baseball player.
You are right to wonder and worry what will happen if Trump loses. He has already convinced some electors not to certify the results if he doesn’t win. His mental deterioration and his inability to recognize reality
is more obvious now. I’m not even sure if he is lying or really believes what he says.
September 22, 2024 at 12:15 am
Trump lies as easily as he breathes. Your memory about the movie is correct and he played a baseball player who goes back on active duty I think his wife was played by June Alyson. We might get some rain tomorrow night with the arrival of a cold front.
September 22, 2024 at 12:55 am
I was never a June Alyson fan.
It is still raining but no rain later today. It will be in the mid 60’s.
I think Trump has lost touch with what is real. Originally it was 15,000 Haitians then 20, 000 and I think it is up to 35,000 now.
He didn’t know at first where they are from as he said he would send them all back to Venezuela.