Parading around the Neighborhood

We live in a 90 year old house, but we are only the third owners. The first owner had it from 1922 until sometime in the early 50's when my grandparents bought it. My grandfather died in 1958, but my grandmother lived here until January 1987 when she passed away at the age of 97. That's when we bought it.  Ronald Reagan was president. We were "newlyweds" (still are!), newly licensed lawyers with no children. Everything in the house needed work and we started tackling one project after another

This house was so BIG then. It was just the two of us and we had all these rooms..  Over the years it became much much smaller as we had kids who kept getting bigger and gathering more things. Then the boys moved out and it felt bigger again, but since they left most of their stuff,  it has never felt as big as it first did. Also, once we moved Maggie downstairs and turned the breakfast room into her bedroom, the flow of the house has been very different.

Even though we've lived here  for 25 years, we do not have "seniority" on the block. I guess there are about 40 houses on the block and I know at least 6 have residents who have been here longer than us. Another 5 have been here 20 years. That's amazing. Some of the oldest neighbors have passed away and young families have moved in just as we did 25 years ago. Those houses that were neglected came back to life right before our eyes.

People tend to stay on this block. But not everyone. This week one of the new families moved away. Hilary and Wendy had only been here a few years, but decided to move across town to cut down on commutes to school and work. We were sorry to see them go. They have three little kids, two boys and a girl, who brought such a great energy to the block. One of the boys who was only three or four had a very DEEP voice and would shout for mom, or for one of his siblings. We cracked up every time we heard him.   They were always outside playing and having fun with one of the moms watching them. When I saw the "For Sale" sign on the house I was sad. I looked forward to watching the kids grow up.

Moving with three little kids is no for the feint of heart. It's a ton of work (though not having 24 years worth of crap would make it slightly easier). They worked diligently for several weeks and were ready when the moving trucks arrived last Friday. During one of the purges in preparation for the move, Hilary found a box with her kids Halloween costumes from a couple of years ago. They pounced on that box when they saw it and decided to have a parade up and down the street wearing a mish mash of too small costumes. They pulled the gay pride flag out to make it even more parade like. It was hilarious. They happily stopped for the paparazzi (me).

We will miss them and wish them well. 

With them gone it will fall to us to run the parades around here. I will festoon Maggie's chair. It just won't be the same, though.