The morning is chilly. When I woke up, I was glad for Gracie and the warmth of her body. It was even cool enough to bring my furry slippers out of their seasonal retirement. The sun this morning looks muted. It sits behind grayish white clouds. Maybe it will rain was the best the weatherman could do.

My town had the usual stores, the sorts every small town had back then. It also had a hospital, a zoo and a town pool. It had one movie theater, a couple of bowling alleys, a miniature golf course, a Dairy Queen and O’Grady’s diner. My town always felt huge to me. The Independent was the town newspaper. It was published once a week and was crammed with every tidbit of town news. We knew the grandsons of the Riley family were visiting and that the Roberts had celebrated an anniversary. All the pages and stories were filled with names of locals. I even made it myself a few times. The police blotter listed every call. We knew whose cat was caught in a tree and what old lady heard strange noises at night. For a short while, when I was in elementary school, I delivered the Independent. When I was in high school, I wrote a weekly column in the summer about the drill team and the competitions we had every weekend. I loved seeing my by-line. The fire station in town was an old brick building covered in ivy. It was across the street from the town hall. On the grounds of the town hall was a small shaded walkway with a few benches. A World War II memorial in front of the building named every resident who had served. I always stopped to read my father’s name.

In my memories, that town, where I grew up, was idyllic, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating. It had everything a kid could want. We had woods, railroad trains and tracks, Saturday matinees, berry picking spots, the swamp, an ice skating rink in winter and a playground in the summer with its games and sports and all sorts of handcrafts. All of my friends lived there.

When I was forced to move to the cape, I was devastated. I went from everything to nothing. On most weekends that first year I took the bus back to my town. Gradually, though, those bus trips became less frequent and then they stopped. I stayed home.