Our first stop of the day was my home in Wilmington, DE. I lived here from 1966 thru 1970- my 4th thru mid-7th grade years. When we approached the house a gentleman was standing outside. Turns out he was the owner of the home since 1983. He was able to fill me in on the neighborhood and let me know which families were still the original owners. Turns out one of my closest childhood friends still lives there! We knocked on her door and her mom, Mrs. Leary answered. She’s in her mid-80’s, but still looks remarkably young and the same. She invited us in and we had a little chat about the old times. She was always a hands-on fix it type person and true to form, she was in the process of refinishing a table in her backyard. Cute. From there we went to St. Mary Magdalen’s School. Unfortunately it was locked, but we ran into the parish priest (a rather rude SOB I might add), and he told us we could inquire at the rectory. A very sweet woman opened up the church and let Ned and I wander around. It brought tears to my eyes to see this place again. So many memories. I showed Ned the balcony where I went “fishing” with my hymnal tied to palm leaves that didn’t hold and went crashing down in the middle of mass. The priest stopped mass, pointed to me and my friend, and yelled, “You, out of the house of God.” Yep, that pretty much started off my descent to hell. It was also here where I poured all the holy water out of the containers and filled them with orange soda. You should have seen all the kids, dressed in their Catholic School white shirts with orange dots on them! As we left the church, I must admit I was a bit surprised that it was still standing and didn’t quiver, shake or burn to the ground as I crossed the threshold. Our next stop was The Charcoal Pit, a 1950’s burger joint that still serves the best burgers ever. We had an interesting couple of hours navigating the Jersey and Garden State turnpikes. (Glad Ned was driving!). We finally made it to Northern Jersey and the sweet little hamlet of Ramsey. The town is definitely more upscale then when we lived there. The little house on Forest Avenue, where I lived from 1963 to 1966, is still there and looks adorable! The owner was a little concerned about me taking pictures of his home and came outside to see what we were up to. Turns out his folks bought the house from my parents in 1966 and his mom still lives there! We then paid a visit to St. Paul’s school. It wasn’t yet out for the summer and we were fortunate that a 5th grade teacher gave us a grand tour of the entire school. Yes, I was able to wander by the statue of the Virgin Mary that we would crown on May 1 and my 1st – 3rd grade classrooms. Interestingly enough, there are no longer nuns associated with any of these schools. Apparently both the convents have now been converted to the rectory. I guess now that woman have more options a life, the nunnery no longer has quite the appeal it used to – ha! As I wandered around the churches and schools it was hard not to imagine the nuns still wandering the halls, fully clothed from head to toe in their dark habits. Some, like Sister Mary Catherine, will always be remembered for her kindness and gentle guidance, while others, like Sister Flavian still haunt me – the mean ol’ battle-ax. No one, at either of the parishes or schools knew what has happened to any of the sisters. Sad. It was an emotional day for me reliving so much of the past -thinking of the years my Big Papa lived with us in these homes, the childhood friends I played with and lost touch, my little brother being born and brought home on Christmas Day, and all those catholic school memories!
We decided to camp at a place closer by than originally planned so headed into nearby New York. It’s a gorgeous area, feels very much like the Adirondacks. However, the campground itself is kinda odd, despite the beautiful lake and WPA era style buildings. We are in a wide open wooded meadow surrounded by too many New Yorkers. The thousands of ¼ inch tiny frogs continuously hopping all around definitely adds to the uniqueness of this campground.
