Today I took a walk down memory lane. This morning I hopped in the Jetta and went for a drive. I found myself in the neighborhood that I grew up in, Seward, in south Minneapolis. First, I drove by the house that I spent my first 20+ years in. The latest owner has done a really nice job of painting the house, and has done some beautiful landscaping with rocks, small trees, and many, many flowers - my Mom would have enjoyed the new yard. But, my brother, his friends, and I would not have been able to play football ("smear the queer") in the yard any longer! Most of the other houses that I remembered from my youth had also gone through a significant face-lift, and the yards all seemed a little bit smaller to me than I remembered them. Also, the trees seemed a lot bigger than when I saw them last, because the block now seemed very tiny, and was dwarfed by many tall, lush tress. I began to wonder about each house, and if the neighbors I once knew still lived there or not.
Next, I drove about 12 blocks away to my elementary school, Seward, and the parkboard that shared the same block, Matthews Park. The moment I parked the car and got out to walk around the park, memories came flooding back to me. The playgrounds have changed a bit, with newer swings and slides, and they've added some grassy areas where once only hot blacktop stood. But, I could still remember running around that playground each day for recess, or when we were finally able to go outside for gym class each Spring. The outdoor pool was still there as well! They have added a nicer iron fence around it, but the whale in the middle of the pool was still spouting a steady stream of water out of his blow hole - good to see some things stay the same! I can remember countless summers spent in that pool, running underneath the stream of water, and even sitting on that poor, old, tired whale. I was surprised to find that the smell of the pool water was a familiar smell from my youth, along with the sound of the stream of water slapping on the pool's surface.
I then found myself wandering over to the basketball courts and the tennis courts. I never did get a chance to play hoops there, because there was always a game or two being played by the older kids, and they never let any of us join them. The nets looked rather short, and I could now touch the rim without a problem - where was a ball when I needed one?! I spent a few summers on that tennis court too, taking lessons from the parkboard, and I got to be a pretty good player for a 10-year old.
The next thing that caught my eye was the sledding hill. What a great time we spent on that hill, sliding down it at breakneck speeds, and then having to walk back up the side of it to get back to the top. The walk up this time wasn't too bad, and there still was a pretty good view from the top. That's when I spied the baseball diamonds. I hadn't stepped foot on them in over 20 years. They are still in as rough a shape as they were back then! I walked to the mound on Field #3, and was instantly brought back to my little league days. This was the mound that I stood on many summers ago, throwing countless hours of batting practice, and eventually giving myself a very sore elbow. I used to have to soak it in ice water after each practice, and I could still remember how cold it felt at first, and then how numb it became shortly thereafter. Standing there in my flip-flops, I went through the motions of throwing a few pitches - I felt oddly enough at ease, like I never left that place. I hope no one was watching me, and wondering what that idiot was doing!
After taking in as much as my brain could handle, I got back into the car and continued my drive. I found a very nice cafe that was in a building that once housed a grocery store that was close by my school. The cafe is called the Clicquot Club Cafe (www.clicquotclubcafe.com), named after the mural that was painted on the side of the building many, many years before. The store that used to be there only let a few people in it at a time, but was now full of happy, talkative diners. I ordered my sandwich and iced tea and sat outside in the area known as "the garden" - a handful of adirondack chairs surrounding a small pond and waterfall, with many plants and trees. It was a great place to sit and reflect on my day.
Even though many things have changed in my old neighborhood, and many people have come and gone, it still felt nice to be able to walk back into my past, and to relive countless memories that had been stored away in the depths of my mind. Thank you God for a nice time spent in thought and memories this morning.
