They say you can't go home again..... I am finding they are right. I have come back to my hometown for the first time in 12 years and so many things are changed. Many of the people that I remember are no longer locals. Buildings that I remember are still here but have changed ownership and business names. I played tourist while I was here, taking lots of pictures of things I remembered. I was glad to see that some things still look the same but being older and taller the vantage point is different.
The outer portion of the library is the same.... I spent so many hours in that place because it fed my love of books. I remember my mother taking us there when I was a child and going there in elementary school for a field trip. I remember hours of research done there as a teenager for papers for high school. The library had a children's section, a teen section and an adult section as well as the periodical room. This was before computers were so popular and everything needed to be looked up in the card catalogue to find it. To this day I am excited to walk into a library and know that the world is at my fingertips and adventures await when I open the covers of a book.
The ocean and beaches look the same. I guess there isn't much that could be done that would change the waters. I was hoping for some time with the ocean waves rolling in. This visit the bay was rougher than the ocean but to be able to remove my shoes and feel the sand between my toes and the water over my feet was wonderful. The salt air was perfume to me and seeing these places brought back the memories of laughter and playing in the sun and surf as a child; of meeting family and friends on the beach. Memories of picnics at Fresh Pond and fireworks at Albert's Beach or Main Beach flooded back. Days of innocence and growing up.
Another thing from "yesteryear" is the foods I used to eat while living in my hometown. I can't get them where I live now but I was able to find them again here. Rare roastbeef and american cheese on a hard roll with mayo and salt and pepper along with a Hampton's Dairy iced tea in a green box was a must have. I ate them regularly and was so glad that I was able to get them at Buckets where Everett came out of the back to say hello. I worked in that store on Saturday mornings putting the Sunday newspapers together. I always got lunch from there or from the Chicken house on Saturday. It just depended on which deli I was at when lunch time rolled around.
New York Pizza was a must as well. I ate it twice this week..... folded over the proper way with extra cheese and garlic salt added to it. Grease dripped from the folded crust as I bit in and closed my eyes. There are New York style pizza places in the south but there is NOTHING like it to have it from one of the parlors from my home town. I worked for a local parlor when I was in my early teens and thought when I stopped that I would never want pizza again. How wrong I was. Due to be older and having reflux issues I don't usually eat red sauce anymore.... but NY pizza isn't the same without it and I found that I didn't have one bit of problem with it from here.
I am so glad I took the time to come back to my hometown. I still want to bring my children so they can see it, but I long for the days of yesteryear, when we walked the streets safely and played at the parks and beaches and through the neighborhoods. It felt odd seeing the local kids grown up even though it has been so long since I have been back and I feel old myself many days. Seeing familiar places took me back to being a child and the days of freedom and innocence.
