Snippets & snatches....Sunny..hot...83*

                                               A  Snatch from a Bygone Era

 

My dear cousin went to the town where I was born and took pictures of my earliest childhood home.

I was thrilled to learn that it was still there, built in 1900. And even though it no longer has the wood shingles I remember, it still looks familiar. And even better, the setting is the same. The steps down to the little strip of beach that the whole neighborhood used. Those were the steps that I fell down taking all the skin off my shin, and I can remember Mom and Dad kneeling on the floor while I sat on a kitchen chair, deciding what to do. The back yard has a little strip of grass and then a sea wall, below which are large rocks and then the ocean. Mom used to tie me out there by means of a harness ( I don't remember that! ) so I could have outside time. When I was older I would play on the rocks below the wall and rescue stranded creatures, mainly crabs, that were washed up there by the waves. I do wish I could have showed you a picture of the little red school house just down the street from my house, but it's gone. There were 3 grades, Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade, all in one room with partitions separating the classes. I started there at age 4 1/2 and remember being able to listen to the other classes beyond the partition. When third grade came we had to go "uptown" to a big, many story high brick building. Quite a contrast to that little neighborhood school that I could walk to. And modern early childhoods are quite a contrast to those days I remember, and I don't think necessarily better! Well I'll close now, but I do remember lots more stories of my first seven year at  23 Beach Ave. that I'll someday share with you.

 

  The steps that I fell down taking all the skin off my shin       ^

The little strip of grass , I was 'tied' out on to keep me safe from the sea

The rocks below the wall I used to play on