Move Into the Country, Eat a Lot of Peaches

The house I grew up in was a small country dwelling, that originated as an even smaller, more country dwelling. My parents put an addition on at some point and I can only imagine what it was like prior to that. Bunk beds, plus foster children equals more beds in every nook, and only one small bathroom. There was furnace heating that came through one small vent in the room I shared with my sister and a larger vent out in the play room. Sissy and I would scurry out on cold winter nights and squeeze in front of that panel of heat for the two minutes it lasted to warm our small bodies before running back to our beds, hoping not to get caught. Nearly impossible, since our house was anything but soundproof. My family all watched television in the living room together and ate dinner around the same table each night. I shared a room with my sister until my brother left for the Army and then I had my own space for the first time, until he went AWOL over a girl and ended up back home. Even while in my own room, my sister and I would tap on the wall to let each other know that we were right there.

I lived up a dirt drive that was inhabited by 6 other families at the time. To get to our house, you would veer into the dirt drive once you passed the row of mailboxes, pass the small home at the base of the drive, pass Pine Tree Fort and Big Rock on your right, followed by the big house overlooking Lake Mombasha on your left. That house is now owned by doctors but once was owned by a man who I think ended up drowning in said lake one drunken afternoon. Make a sharp right turn, pass The Castle and then the house of our hippy neighbor whose husband died from a drug overdose before we were aware of him and who wouldn't let her kids have sugar (one of whom ended up robbing our house later on in life, the other who went onto Harvard). She married a man who had money, renovated her house and later moved away. Next to them is our religious neighbors who adopted pre-teen brother and sister and proudly displayed the Jesus fish on their car bumper. They used to have pretty wild parties (possibly prior to finding Jesus?) and I vividly remember a brother-in-law who played way to rough with all of the neighborhood kids but whom we all adored anyway... thinking back, he gave us all a little TOO much attention, which we eagerly ate up. They were directly next door to us, then the neighbors with the husband who dressed up in Civil War garb, complete with the gun, and drank pickle juice. His daughter bit me once on her swing set and I went home to tell my parents. My father's advice was to "bite her back" so I went looking for the perfect opportunity to do just that, but learned that a bite really needs to be spontaneous in order to work. Last on the dirt road were the neighbors with the big house and pool overlooking our bus stop and Lake Winnipee in the distance.

Today a lot more big houses overlooking Lake Mombasha have sprung up and a fancy stone wall has even been built. I think The Castle has been torn down, or will be shortly and I can only imagine the fate of Pine Tree Fort. Thankfully, Big Rock will still be standing unless some major dynamite comes into the mix. My brother now lives in the house that I grew up in and I don't like to think about what the newbies think of the life that was my childhood and is still my brother's. We didn't have much, but we had nature, and love and interesting afternoons. We were country kids, and though I've been in the city for a long time now, I still feel that. Slowly, the city mentality is creeping into even the most remote crevasses of my childhood home, and it makes me sad to wonder what my father would think of all the changes. Knowing him, he'd be upset with all the "yippies" moving into his territory, but would offer to plow their drive for a nice price, and would wake them Sunday mornings with the sound of his chainsaw cutting wood for our wood-burning stove. And he'd laugh about that, but be sure to tell them to SLOW DOWN, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE as their SUV's go speeding by on a road meant to be taken leisurely.