Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Memoir Fodder 02: State Street

State Street is getting its own post. It's a weird time because it's confusing. I'm pretty sure I was in third grade when I lived here but I'm also sure neither parent taught at the school I went to. It was Rosa A. Lott school then, but it's not now. So, that means that they were still teaching in Mount Vernon I suppose. I believe Mom carpooled there with someone.

While we lived on State Street I had my first memory of having a friend whose house I would go to and we'd play in his back yard and watch Batman, the sixties one, after school sometimes. We'd also play Batman with imaginary villains out in the back yard. They lived on Oak Street and I walked there. The thing is, I can't find the house on Google Maps. Evidently things change in 40 years. I found one that I think is right, it's got houses next door on either side that could be the right ones... maybe.

To the right when facing the house was a very old lady, very old, and she had tiger lilies I believe they were, growing along the sidewalk from her front door to the sidewalk along the street and one time I believe she hired me to weed those things and take out the brown sticks they leave after the blooms fall off. To the left was Mister Gilmore, now dead, who slept on his front porch. I remember him as being profoundly old as well. They can't have been thrilled to get these kids living next door.

Now, I seem to remember the back yard being long and thin with some sort of outbuilding on the right side of the property but I don't remember anything IN the outbuilding. Mostly what I remember in the back yard was me and my sister catching bees by hand. If you caught them by the wings when they landed they couldn't do anything. Sort of like dangerous butterflies. I don't know if they survived our catching them or not. I don't remember my sister being stung, but I'm told she was. I don't remember ever catching bees again though so someone probably did get stung.

I remember the cement step at the back door and I remember it because I found an old tarnished dime and I couldn't read the date so I thought if I polished it up by rubbing it on that cement step I'd be able to read the date better. It didn't work so well. It sort of did in that it got shinier, but the date didn't pop out at me... probably because I smeared it across the step.

I don't think we were here long because I don't remember how I got to and from school and I know in 4th grade I was in the same school, but at a different house. I might have ridden to school with the librarian from the school? Maybe? I remember going to his house. He had a great yard. Lots of flowers. I think huge elephant ears and sunken maybe, below street level and under giant oak trees. I could be making all that up though because I don't remember HOW I got to school. I might be revising riding with him into it. Maybe I took the bus. I don't remember that at all and I'd think I would. We were there over a Christmas because I remember coming downstairs and stopping on a landing seeing all the stuff Santa had brought.

Oh, that picture at the top... it has nothing to do with anything. I just really liked it.

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