Lat night was cooler, down to the 70’s, so I turned off the AC. This morning the house is still cool, but that won’t last. It will be in the 80’s today and most of the week. I will hibernate.

My inner sloth is still reeling. Yesterday I cross off the chores on my to-do list. I scrubbed all the deck chairs and swept the deck, well most of it. I’ll finish the rest today. I need a new broom.

When I was a kid, I loved walking around uptown checking out the stores. I remember there were three drug stores close to each other. I never wondered about that. Middlesex Drug was the fanciest. It had the best soda fountain with a marble top. That is where I’d drink my vanilla cokes made the old way with fizzy water and flavoring. They had counters along the sides and in the middle, and at Christmas I’d wander hoping to find presents for my parents within my meager budget. Pullo’s Rexall Drug was right by the movie theater. It was small. Mr. Pullo, also the pharmacist, used to wear white jackets, the sort Ben Casey always wore. He was one of my father’s friends. Stoneham Pharmacy, Bracciotti’s, was almost next door to Pullo’s. I don’t remember ever shopping there.

One of my favorite stores was the cobbler’s. It was long and narrow and tucked between two other stores. The window was filled with shoes in pairs with Manila tags. The counter too was covered in shoes. The cobbler sat behind the counter working on a shoe held on a metal holder the shape of a shoe. He wore an apron. He always looked old to me.

On the street in the middle of the square used to be a police box. A policeman sat inside and controlled the three sets of attached traffic lights. Signs were on the front. Straight ahead to Route 128 and straight ahead to Route 28. A traffic accident destroyed it.

The square was called up-town while Boston was in-town. I don’t know if everyone called it that, but my mother always did.