Please forgive the pictures, they were taken with the iphone....
The first was a pilgrimage to Crosby Blvd. and the home my mother along with her two brothers grew up in.
I have no memories of this house as they moved just before I was born (I think) into their new and smaller condo. Despite having no memories of my own, I have a pretty clear vision of the house in my head from stories upon stories I've heard over the years. It's like a gone but not forgotten family member, everyone always talks about it and keeps its memory alive.
Next on the list was the condo in Oakbrook I had spent so many summers hanging out in.
Now this place I have endless memories of! I can clearly see it in my mind's eye, I can feel the fabric of the furniture, the carpets and even the building's hallway walls (they were textured), I can smell the scent of that same hallway (loved it!), I can taste the corn on the cob my Gramma used to make, I can hear the beloved upstairs neighbors playing piano, I can feel the dampness of the basement and sense the fear I had going down there to do the laundry (it creeped me out!)
It's such a complete sensory experience going back there again.....I loved that place!
The outside still looks the same, even their back porch (the lower one).
The hallway is no longer textured and the scent is gone, a real disappointment for me. I was looking forward to inhaling that place again, as strange as that may seem. I find a lot of my memories in general are tied to smells.
We said goodbye to Oakbrook and drove by our host's old house just down the road. Another house with fond fond memories, mainly of my later life in Buffalo with S, but also earlier ones. I tried to get a picture by the sun was exactly in the wrong place during our drive by.
We drove by the first apartment we shared during our second year at school. Upper right. That's where S sat and ate the caviar my Dad brought for him from Russia when he came to visit.
What a dump.... :-) We tried to find the other location we had lived in but couldn't! We either weren't remembering it correctly or it had changed. No matter. By that time we were good and tired of nostalgia and were ready to move on.
Oh, before doing that though, I have to mention one more place we used to frequent and did so again,
If you don't know, Wegmans is the best grocery store there is. It was back then and it's even better now. No wonder Whole Foods doesn't open up shop in Buffalo, there's some real competition here. They even had a drop in playroom for the kids so you can shop in peace! What an idea! Not that we utilized it. Unfortunately we only discovered it as we were heading out for the last time....
We did however have fun with the Buffalo Bills paraphernalia
And loved this shirt :-)
See, even Wegmans is mentioned on it!
Our stay in Buffalo was extended by a day since we had some maintenance to do on the RV and plenty of organizing and shopping to do before we could head out again. Oh, and when I say 'we' had some maintenance to do that'd be the royal we of course. You don't see me climbing up on that ladder do you? S was up there patching up the roof a bit. Nothing big, just typical stuff. But it did have to be done before the rain came.....
More play was to be had with our hosts
More attempts at play were to be made by Patsy -
Come on, you're leaving tomorrow.....GET up and play with me!!
Giving it up. Again.
This is where I want to be and what I want to do. Nothing more, nothing less.
Leave. Me. Be.
Lucky for Patsy she had kids who wanted to run around, if not a dog.
Ready? ready?
I'm ready!!
GO!!!!
Boy that dog can turn on a dime.
And finally, some rest. And peace and quiet for the rest of us....
G&G moved from Crosby when you were a few months old so that by the time you visited at 17 months they were happily living at Oakbrook.
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