Take Me Home, Country Roads....

OK, so it isn't home anymore, and it isn't in the country, nor even roads , rather, it was to the place I lived until I was 12, and it was thoroughfares and expressways, and toll roads, and causeways (I haven't figured out the differences between those and highways, except on the toll roads, you're paying for the privilege to use them!)

We left Massachusetts around 11, an hour after we wanted to leave, but that seems to be part of the vacation mode. Each time we cross a state, I try to get the picture of the state welcome sign. So we drove through Rhode Island (poor little state, it only took a half hour to make it through the middle), through Conneticut, and finally NY. On our way, we stopped off at another DDD in Conneticut. "Valencia Luncheria" featuring Valensuelian food. It was another "dive" that had very good food, even Cuban style food. However when we compared to the the other places we've been to, particularly the one that had Cuban food, it was simply OK.
Valencia - "Valenzuelan Beach Food"
My excitment to see my old neighborhood waned a bit as we got closer, and had to inch along the freeways. By this time, it was about 5:30, some rush hour traffic, but I think it was the small accident, merging traffic and construction that slowed down the traffic.

The GPS took us in a different way, so I wasn't familiar with the neighborhood until I got right upon the street. And then, had I not seen the street sign, I think I would have driven right by. The trees that lined the street were either gone or much bigger. Our house was now a beautiful 2 story house not the humble little boxey one from before. As I walked along the street, with my precious husband and darling boys just waiting patiently in the car, some of the memories started to come back to me.

My old house, now remodeled to a 2 story home. Our neighbors, The "Days". Our house's model was similar to this.

My sisters think this was brave of me, but I couldn't come this far and not do it. I started knocking on doors. First of course, on 41 Anchor Court. The man who answered, Joe, was very nice and after hearing why I was there and wanting to take pictures of the outside, invited me in to take ALL the pictures I wanted. But I had camera problems. I brought 2 cameras with me: one that got water on it, and was dead (but came back to life after a hair dryer and shake operation later), the other two were quickly running out of battery life. But still I was able to get some to share with my family later. I also knocked on the door of the homes of friends, and sadly, no one was home.
The bus stop where we caught the bus to school

From there, we drove to a pond, that was called Argyle Lake. Our family called it "The Ducks" because of the many ducks that were there and we used to feed them our dried and stale bread. Now there was a sign asking people to NOT feed the ducks. Too bad. Some kids are missing out on memories they could make.
I can remember going there after church on Sundays or on Saturdays. My dad loved to take pictures of us. He would find some poses in the magazines that he thought were interesting, and then have us stand in same positions and play photographer. My sons were good sports and let me pose them by some of the trees to carry on his legacy. Jonathan even hammed itup a bit and added some crazy poses. I love my family.

You can click on the pictures to super size them ..

Since I read how my old elementary school had burned down last February, and nothing else looked familiar, it was time to move on.