The Strangest Place of All

This Monday morning, I imagine that Memory may be the strangest place of all. It was the weekend, I suppose. M is still struggling with back and knee pain, Indian October Summer was well in place, and the roadster was all gassed up. What the hell! A temporarily crippled lady and her aging and balding (well, "bald" may be closer to the truth) husband of 48 years mounted Nachamu the car and headed up North from Philadelphia into the Lehigh Valley, the expanse of Pocono foothills and valleys just beyond Allentown, PA. Hadn't been up there in quite a while. The road was the road we used to take to my sister's restaurant up in Sullivan County, New York. I think we both would have liked to travel but M's back wouldn't have made the round trip.

It was as if the various roads and the look of the little towns were sufficient to set off memories.

Lumberton (or was it Lamberton) brought back images of New Hampshire which we left in 1974 to come to Philly even before our third child was born. I would spend part of the weekend retrofitting sliding doors for some of her built in bookshelves in which her three kids (one nearly 15 and the almost 10 year old twins) could hide some of their games when not in use.

The passing of Rod and Gun Club meets in Carbon County .... the changing leaves .... the corn fields .... the corn fields, in particular, fired up parts of my brain not fired for quite a while. From Summer 1954 to the end of 1956, my parents moved to Toledo from Brooklyn. I expected the midWEST to be more like the Wild West ... Cowboys and Horses ... but found, instead a lot of cornfields. On some Sundays (don't know how many), the family (Parents, 4 kids and a dog) would drive for miles on roads that passed through the cornfields to buy Dairy Queen soft ice cream. Could picture the pooch slurping his, now after nearly 60 years ... my youngish parents ... the three sibs who are now all grandparents ... and me ...

The road back was along the Delaware canal and had different memories. A trip to take two young adolescent boys up to camp maybe 35 years ago ... how they hated that camp. Trips to visit a friend who lived up there not far from the canal. Memories of that relationship souring ... maybe the only friendship I can recall ending uncomfortably. That brought back earlier memories, still, from Graduate School days in the 60's ... guess I should've known even then that his envies would end up in great discomfort for us both and in him acting out these envies.

We stopped in an Inn for lunch ... one that we passed many times ... 'an Inn not before taken.' There was a 1957 Olds convertible parked outside the restaurant, apparently related to the 1955 reunion going on inside for Central Bucks High School Class of 1955.

Bunch of Old Farts, if y'asks me. A couple of years from Playing in Overtime.

I know. Nobody asked me.

We got home not much after 2:00 and ended up having dinner with Ruthie and Miltie who we've also known since Graduate School Days in the mid-late 1960's.

More memories. Wonder if GuntherDog has memories, too. Ah! It's 5:08 AM ... chances are he's gotta pee and we all remember what that's like.