GOING UP HOME

Readers of this blog might notice that at times it will ramble a bithere and there around my family history and memories. I suspect Imost lilkely will disappoint more serious genealogists but I want to set some of this stuff down in writing somewhere and this is as good a place as any.

So. Let's start with this: Going Up Home.

My dad met my mom here in Massachusetts after returning from World War II. He was working with a landscape crew climbing trees, trimming dead branches or cutting them down completely, a job that he was imminently qualified for as the son of a lumberman. A friend of Dad's was dating my mom's cousin and set my parents up on a blind date and the rest as they say, is history.


Every year though we loaded up the car and headed north or UpHome as Dad called it. Dad did all the driving while Mom did all the warning about his driving and my sister and I would watch the scenery whizz by until we dozed off. If we were lucky we got a chance to get out of the car and stretch our legs if Dad decided to stop someplace along the way for food. The big ritual on the trip was the handing out chewing gum just before we hit Franconia Notch and crossed the White Mountains so that chewing the gum would "pop" our ears.

The ultimate destination was Milan, New Hampshire where Dad's sister lived with her husband and family. Sometimes we stayed at their house, other times at a motel in Gorham or Berlin. Then after dinner we'd watch the tv shows from Quebec in French before bed and the next day head off to visit Dad's parents.Which is a good a place to stop for now.To be continued…