HOUSE TOUR

I'm going on vacation in a few weeks with my sister and I
decided I better become more comfortable with using my
digital camera. So this afternoon I got in my car and took a
little trip down memory lane, which in this case was a tour of
the various places my family has lived her in Abington.

What I found is that while you can go home again, it might not
necessarily look the same as it did when you lived there.

The first place I went by was the house on Bicknell Hill Rd
which was actually built for my folks by a local construction
company. You can see what it looked like back then here in a
picture I used for the Carnival of Genealogy on Pets. The
house was originally brown shingled with an open air patio.
My dad enclosed the patio, putting a sliding glass door on the
back wall to a new concrete patio and jalousie windows on
the front side. He poured new cement steps for the
front door that went off to the side, and planted shrubs along
the front of the house. And on the day in 1967 when the
Red Sox won the pennant, Dad and I were painting the house
green.

It's been nearly forty years since we moved out. The green
shingles have been replaced by yellow vinyl siding. The
jalousie windows on the former patio were replaced by a small
bay window. The large window in the parlor is now a large
bay window, the cement stairway replaced by smaller brick
steps and the shrubbery all gone. Also gone is the apple
tree in the front yard where Dad would leave the Christmas
lights up until Spring.

There didn't seem to be anyone home. I wonder what sort of
reaction I'd have received if I'd knocked on the door and
introduced myself as a member of the first family that lived
there.

But I drove on to the next place in town instead.