25 years
Or almost. Actually, we weren’t even in our initial stages of house-hunting at this time 25 years ago. We were living in a nice two bedroom apartment over on Jackson and we were trying (or not) to get pregnant. Well. Try? How ’bout drop of the hat? The “or not”? Terrified!!! At 30!!! Sheesh!! But it was all right and I *think* I did okay with my babies, despite the fact that I hadn’t ever even changed a diaper in my whole life until my own first baby was born.
I think that later in March of that year, when I *knew* that I was pregnant, we were looking at houses. I didn’t have a blahg then so I can’t look it up. We were shown three houses on our first go ’round. I wasn’t thrilled with the first two. We turned onto Landfill Drive here and I wasn’t thrilled with *this* house either. Until I walked into it enough to see that there was a large “back room” and a big back yard and a *woods* behind it. How many times can you say woods? $65K? Happy dance? Yes. Okay. $65K was scary in those days. Yes, it was. Who knew.
We bought it hook line and sinker and our neighbors on both sides at that time were probably about the ages we are now. They were intelligent, vibrant folks with responsible jobs and social networks that spanned the world. Three days after Grandroobly died in 2006, Chris next door died, after years of worsening health problems. I think that more than anything, Joan missed her husband so terribly that she couldn’t go on. Today I read in the newspaper that she died. She fell in her driveway late last summer. We were out of town. Thankfully, people are always walking dogs, etc., in our neighborhood and she didn’t have to wait long for help. Unfortunately, so often a fall signals the end of life for an older person who doesn’t necessarily have anything they want to live for any more. She lingered for a while in an upscale assisted living place but in the end…
We don’t spent a whole lot of time with our neighbors but we are always friendly. I hope whoever ends up there next fits in to this odd little block of people who move in and stay forever.
So long, Joan. We *will* miss you.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:01 pm
In our first house, we had older people on both sides of us–usually nice folks except for Al who liked to get drunk and harass us over the back yard fence. When he died, his wife Etta was a great neighbor–then she got suddenly very sick with cancer and died. Art on the other side was a character, but friendly. He eventually got cancer and died in his 80s. New people moved in both houses and they were NOT so nice. We moved away. End of story.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
wow, i’m really sorry to hear that mom… i wonder who will move in?
March 4th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
The nice thing about your home (landfill, sweet landfill) is that a young couple can move in, raise a family, and then the children (sorry Liz and Mouse – children you will always be)can move to their own homes and you can still be a couple in your nice sized home. You really don’t have to move again for a long time unless you want to. Besides, the more room you have, the more stuff you have. I like your house because it is a home, and happy people live there. I’m sorry that your neighbor died, but I hope that you get nice new neighbors and I hope that you can live there for a long time.