A Trip Down Memory Lane, Part One

Bob and I are up here in the northeast visiting family. We flew into the "lovely" Newark Airport, rented a car, and drove up to Ridgefield, Connecticut to stay a few days with his brother, Jim, and his wife, Randi. We paid $8.00 to cross the George Washington Bridge into New York City, but driving up the highway along the Hudson River had some very pretty sights to see. Bob's sister, Suzanne, and her husband, Ray, drove in from the Boston area to spend the night with us. It was a very fun reunion, filled with great food, wine and conversation. Randi enjoys cooking, so we were treated to some wonderful meals. We stayed two nights at their lovely home in the woods of Connecticut, touring the quaint, old village of Ridgefield, filled with homes built in the 1700's. A bit different than FloMo. Just had to add the picture of Cooper, Randi and Jim's bearded collie. He's a 49 pound bundle of hair. Very sweet and lovable. I think I may have a new breed of dog to love.

After leaving Jim and Randi's, we headed to New Jersey and drove through my "hometown" of Old Tappan. My folks moved there from Queens, New York, in 1958, when I was 2 years old. We lived in the house until they moved in 1975, just before my second year of college at Rutgers. The picture here shows the house after my folks added the addition. The original house was half this size. The yard was filled with trees my dad had transplanted over the years. I guess the new owner didn't like trees, so he cut them all down. How sad.

It's funny, how when you see places later in life, how small they appear compared to how you remember them. Growing up, I thought we had all this property, as my brothers and I, along with all the neighborhood kids, played games in the yard. Back when we didn't have video games and computers. I lived in a neighborhood filled with kids. A good, Catholic neghborhood. We had a small family with only 4 kids. Most everyone had more, and we had multiple families with 10 or more. One family, the Muth's had 13. We never saw the mom. Wonder why?

We stopped in at the neighbor's across the street from my old house. Mrs. DiMola has lived there since 1953. She raised 6 children in
the house. We chatted for a bit. If we had more time, I could have probably learned all the "dirt" in the town. At the age of 84, she was still sharp and active. It was fun to hear about the old neighbors. We drove by my old high school, Northern Valley Regional, and it appeared as if no improvements had been made in the 34 years! Even the football stadium was puny, of course when compared to our Texas high school stadiums. But apparently, according to Mrs. DiMola, they did add astroturf! The stands were the size of our middle school stands.

The town had changed quite a bit over the years. Gone were the vegetable farms, replaced by neighborhoods filled with huge homes costing well over half a million and more. Older homes were torn down to build the McMansions. Mrs. DiMola said that any home for sale that was more than 30 years old could be demolished for a newer home. Again, how sad.

After our visit to Old Tappan, we drove to Bogota, New Jersey to see Bob's first house. He lived there until he was 10, before he moved to Bridgewater where his parents now live. Again, things looked so small now compared to when we were MUCH younger. And there is some comfort in the fact that some things never change. Like some of the rooms at his parent's house in Bridgewater. They appear frozen in time. As I sat in his folk's living room today, in Bob's grandmother's rocking chair, I thought back to when 31 years ago I sat in this same room for my wedding shower. The years do fly by.