Drive Down Memory Lane

I had to take a trip inland today for work.  On my way I passed a bunch of familiar places.  On the way back through I decided to snap some quick photos.  Above is a farm where our childhood friends Elijah and Ethan used to live.  Not far from our house.  They used to have sheep.

I believe this is where they used to keep some of their sheep.  I remember walking through the pasture wondering if one of the rams was going to “ram” me.  Haha.  No joke.  It never happened.

 

Another view of the farm.

This next house is Billy Butterfield’s.  Nothing spectacular about the story of Billy Butterfield other than he was our closest neighbor going north or west which ever way it is.  I couldn’t say if his house looks better or worse.  I remember Vinny walking to play with him and that Molly sold her pony to them.  He moved away before we did.  I mostly put a picture in here because I love the name Billy Butterfield.

Here is one of the ditches I jumped in when I believed every passing car to be a kidnapper.  I think Sarah Hallett will remember those stories.

My mom is going to be mortified by this picture.  This was the first house my mom bought when she was a single mom with Vinny and me.  Let me tell you, this house has gone down hill.  My mom had zero money but took pride in home ownership and kept her little cape quaint and cute.  I’ll paint a different picture.  There was a deck that wrapped around from up past where the truck is (the entrance door) all the way around the front of the house.  The deck was black and so was all the trim on the house.  The siding was cedar shingles which were painted RED (sorry I wrote black before like my mom was a vampire).  The driveway seemed huge as well as the lawn when we lived there (a kid’s perspective). 

Vinny’s fishing hole.  The river down the road.  Mine too but I just went to jump on rocks and be near the water.

  George’s Store.  Our favorite place as kids.  It hasn’t been a store in over half a century (I mean quarter – come on Rachael!) and it shows.  We had good memories there.  Vinny asked my mom why our babysitter had warts all over her face in front of the woman here.  We also used to sing Georgie Peorgie to the owner.  One time our car spontaneously combusted at this store.  AND one time my mom left her car out of gear or it slipped and we started rolling towards the ditch.    We all lived of course.  Good times at George’s.

 

Our babysitters’ house.  I am pretty sure the house now looks much better than the house then.  But the house was filled with love for Vinny and Rachael.  They didn’t have a indoor bathroom but Clyde did used to drive us to the store (drunk I think) and buy us candy bars. 

 

The meanest girl in school was the child of the people who used to own this store.  We rode the bus with her and she wasn’t nice.  We do have good memories of this place – Maine Italian sandwiches, soft serve ice-cream and pizza (although it had to be pepperoni thanks to Zac).