Remember the year the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened in Cleveland? Bill Clinton was president, OJ was acquitted, and Mel was Braveheart. That was the year I found the cutest house in Cuyahoga Falls. It might have been the brick wall in the kitchen, the impatiens in the flower garden or the big, fenced back yard that just begged for bare baby feet running through the grass. A year later I brought home the first of those babies and she made full use of that yard -- swinging so hard the swingset rocked, lounging in lawn chairs to eat her breakfast cereal and reading hundreds of books on the front porch. The next baby came home nearly five years later, which is when we learned that our back yard was special – loaded with ‘erms (worms) and cool rocks and, on summer evenings, fireflies named Delilah and Peter and Harriet (“Harriet! Harriet! Come out come out everywhere you are!” I don’t know how many S’mores we ate at that firepit in the back – maybe millions. I stripped and refinished those hard wood floors myself – one of them with a hand sander – spending every evening for weeks working to bring that original gleam back to life. I listened to the squeals of all “my” babies playing hide-and-seek through those rooms. That smaller upstairs bedroom was my office till the second baby came along. Inspired by the ocean blue and map wallpaper, I wrote the first of my five novels there. I grew a garden every single year in the back – enough green beans to can, lettuce, tomatoes, and even broccoli and cauliflower. Nearly every part of the yard had flowers or vegetables growing in it at some point – I never could decide how much yard was for food and how much was for soccer. One way or another, the yard was always overflowing – with dogs, kids, clubhouses, picnic blankets, pup tents, clothes hanging on the line, guitar music and even two rabbits hopping around, stealing from the edges of the garden. Well, at first it was only two rabbits. Later there were more. I can feel the season changing, so pretty soon it will be time for one of the sweetest times in the neighborhood – trick or treat. Nearly everyone in the neighborhood sits out front, sharing drinks and firepits and fun-sized candy, catching up on the last of the news before everyone disappears inside for winter. There’s a lot of “I can’t believe how much he grew this summer! Look at those long legs!” and “So she graduated with honors?” There’s a lot of acceptance. And support. There’s also diversity, which was nice to find in the Falls. After years of overflowing with girl giggles, refrigerator paintings, daydreams and the smell of bread baking, the little house (because it is no longer “my” little house) is empty, and ready for new adventures with the right family.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 23:07:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015