Some Memories on a Short Ride to Work

Quite often I don't have much time to listen to any decent songs on the radio on my way to work since it takes from 10-15 minutes to get there. But I do have time now and then to have little memory sessions. I live in the home my parents built and after Mom died in 1993, we bought the place and I've lived here since June 1994. I was sorta getting down on myself for not making much "progress" in my life, driving the last 2 yrs to the new location of my job, and even obtaining a 2nd job in the same new location on the same floor of the bldg. So I head 1/2 mi to Livernois where I turn right ... and on the left a ways up the road is a house my ex-sister-in-law lives in. She was the first one of the 4 sisters and 3 brothers I met when my brother was dating her ... then I met her brother, also my brother's friend, and ended up marrying him...for a little while. Traveling farther up Livernois I come to the intersection at Hamlin and right at that corner is a house where an elementary school friend lived and her mom was our Brownie Scout leader when I was 8 or 9. I'd gone to a pajama party sleepover and I guess I was just having too much fun laughing and ended up having a very bad asthma attack where all the rest of the little girls were staring at me choking for air as I sat on the toilet--once the old diaphragm gets going in and out like an accordion playing a hot polka, I seem to remember it creates some havoc with the bowels. Anyway, the parents had called the fire dept, an ambulance, and my mother. I was sitting on the toilet with the girls staring, when 2 very young and attractive paramedics came in to put an oxygen mask over my face. I was so very embarrassed sitting there on the toilet. I remember my little 5 foot tall mother flying in there flinging little girls left and right and saying, "get out of here and give her some air" and I kept clawing the oxygen mask off my face, feeling just suffocating. There weren't any inhalers in those days, but they must've given me some adrenaline or something and I had a horrible headache. I believe I ruined the pajama party for the most part, but one thing I remember before my mother took me home was my friend's father massaging my temples and helping my heart not hurt so much. I remember how kind that was and how much it meant to me. Strangely enough, he is buried at the cemetery by my parents, just a few gravesites away (about 1-1/2 miles from this same corner, on Hamlin). Then I travel farther down Livernois and pass Avon Rd and in a short while I see a big blue "H" signifying the back entrance to Crittenton Hospital, an entrance all of us silently took during a big full moon on March 27, 1986 at 3:30 a.m., to say goodbye to my father who had just died there. I keep driving on Livernois 1/8th of a mile and I can see Crittenton Hospital, where both my parents died 7 yrs and 1 day apart. But on the south side of Livernois is Rochester High School, good old RHS, home of the Falcons, where I graduated in 1970, going half days (unfortunately I went in the early mornings) while they built the 2nd high school of this school district, Adams. After school I'd walk across Livernois and up University to the little barn in the front parking lot at Crittenton and worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield billing for Co-Op. But for now, I turn left at the intersection of Livernois and once left, it is known as Walton Blvd...and I don't turn left on Rochdale where I used to go every week to have wonderful massages from Larry (someone I'd gone to high school with!) but I turn right into a building where my parents doctor used to have an office, and remember some of the times I'd taken either of them to their appointments, the last right after dad fell and hit his head on his dresser corner and was bleeding internally, developing pneumonia, and was supposed to have an appt, but instead he had to go into the hospital where he never returned from. There are stray cats out by the dumpster in our parking lot. I've been asked 3 times not to feed them and I complied a very long time, until more kittens were born just before winter and I sneak some food to them when I'm able to, and I see others do the same. They deserve better, but for now that's the best I can do.

So that is my 10-15 minute "memory lane" on the road to work. A veer this way or that would reveal so many more memories, and I can go past all 3 of the schools I went to thru the 13 years in this consolidated school district from Hamlin Elementary, to West Jr High and good old RHS, all in one trek to work or back, depending on if I do a bank deposit or not. So...I may not have progressed too far, but don't let anyone tell you you can never go home again, but I know that's not true. I'm sitting here in the "Blue Room", the same room where dad fell and hit his head, the room where my parents made their bedroom, probably the room where I was conceived, and I am facing northwest ... only 240 miles NW was where my folks came from, where my brother and I were both born, and where he died in a car accident.

When I grew up in this house there were cows and a few horses fenced in all around us, not ours but they could come right up to our driveway or orchard and we would feed them apples or sugar cubes. One cow had a calf right beside the driveway. I loved to hear the cows mooing and the horses whinneying, and I really loved to hear the old trains crying in the background, around Livernois somewhere. They're not around any more, but I am, and so are my memories.

Oh, yeah, one of the first things I can remember on my way to work, trying to make a left hand turn onto Auburn, was my mom saying, "I guess you have to be born on the other side of the road to get there." ;oD Yep! Lots of population around now. Dad always seemed to be ahead of his time choosing lands that became popular and over-populated. But much of what he planted and built here still stands ... and all 5'5" of me is part of that.

Happy New Moon and New Year of the Ox, Bloggie Souls xoxo

Your SisSTAR xo