Now Playing: Ends by Everlast
Topic: History
Memories, reading in the hollow in the yard where I grew up, I think it may have once been a treestump, when it was pulled it left a little divot about 18 inches across which I loved to sit in to read (or play I was a bird & it was my nest- but that was when I was younger than the age I'm thinking of) the divot made a more comfortable place to settle into than the flat parts of the ground.
I was thinking of my first garden while readying my garden for planting, we had a couple of cherry tomatoes I think, & I was so impressed with the corn that I took it all apart while it was about as long as one of my fingers. we got a lot of onions which were no bigger than the onion sets that I see in the stores here in VA. I remember the carrots being pretty good though not very large, I was 8 I think & my parents pretty much humored me in making it. My Grandmother showed me how to sow seeds in saved eggshells which were planted with the seedlings to provide nutrients & I know it was my Mother was the one who watered it every evening (Something I know was not really a good idea- you should water in the morning) About once a week a friend of my Fathers would show up with his daughter & take both of us to the beach for the day, we always went to Brant Rock in Marshfield Mass & the daughter & I would spend a lot of the day out on the stones picking perriwinkle shells off the rocks to see them close their little doors. One time my brother walked off & was lost for awhile. There were always too many Jellyfish to have much fun swimming there. I liked Nantasket Beach in Hull better but no one I knew wanted to go there because of the park which everyone said was 'a waste of money' Of course, as a teenager that was exactly where I spent all my time. Chrissie & I got to go a few times before they closed it down for good & put up condos. I know my mother's hair would've turned white if she knew we walked there from Chrissie's grandmothers house. Not much to worry about, we were broke, I think we did one ride each or something like that. By the time we had our first apartment (right near where the park had been) there wasn't a trace of the park, just a big brick condo.
My parents never went anywhere, I remember 1 trip to Vermont for a weekend & 1 trip to Maine. in my entire first 10 years. the furthest we went was the park across the street from the house, the swimming hole there (& I do mean hole) had docks floating in it & swimming lessons which I took every year until I was 13. My brother went to them right through jr. Lifesaving though, I finished early at 13 & by the time I could take Jr. life I was busy doing other things- getting up & swimming at 8 in the morning 5 days a week was NOT my idea of a good time.
I used to climb a giant beech tree in my yard, well, partway in my yard partly in the neighbor's yard. friends & I would carve initials & names etc in the tree, a year after my brother died the tree split in two & fell in the yard, my friend Jackie said to me after making the trek out to the back yard to see the pieces lying all over the yard (it came within 5 feet of the house) 'do you think all that carving we did was responsible for this?' the tree was almost 6 feet in circumfrence & was a very old one, I assured her that it was just the tree's time to go. (she was always a worry wort- we were both 23 at the time this took place)
I spent time in the woods behind the house I grew up in, walking on pathways that were there when my grandfather was a kid. there was swamp lands some of which pooled in areas which formed little pools, there was an uprooted tree with a rock beneath it which overlooked a swamp pool, where I loved to sit & listen to my walkman & think. (brood over my mother's & my latest fight is more like it) in winter there was another swamp place which would freeze & we'd skate, it being a swamp the water would often freeze around trees so you could skate between trees on the frozen swamp water, it was like twisting pathways, I loved it! The woods also had, in later years, a cabin built by neighboring teens who used it to party in, I was old enough to go but too shy to do so. I would go lurk there if I needed to get away from my mother for a few hours during the day while all the 'normal' kids were in school, I'd bring a book & read but it was awkward, everything stank of wet ashes & to this day when I smell that scent I think of that half-assed log cabin. The furniture was all trashed, damp & moldy stuff people had salvaged from their parents houses so it wasn't too pleasant to sit in there.
I would also go to the park across the street & follow the paths there too, just walk around & look at views, (not too great compared to where I live now) & read stuff people had carved in the trees, I actually read where my mother in law (I didn't Know this at the time) & one of her friends skipped school & got stoned for the day & carved this in a tree to commemerate the occasion!
Posted by Becky
at 4:55 PM EDT