A Trip Down Memory Lane

As part of our big driving trip last week, I got to step into the WABAC machine.  (Anybody else out there devotees of Mr. Peabody and Sherman?)

One of my best friends from high school contacted me several months about our 40th high school reunion.  (And how could I have graduated from HS 40 years ago?  And besides that, how did my kids get so old?)

Well, I couldn’t make it to the reunion but I just happened to be in Connecticut in May so I thought it wouldn’t be much out of the way to meet her for dinner on the way back home since we planned on driving in that direction anyhow.

So this is what we looked like 40 years ago:

And here’s what we look like now!

It was so great catching up on each other’s lives.  Our husbands were very patient and just let us chatter on.  It was a great visit.

Next stop on the WABAC ride was to Greenville, PA, where I was born and lived until 1982.  I was a sunlover and spent most of my summers on the beach at Pymatuming Lake, so I had to stop there.  It looks exactly like it did when I was 17!

Next stop was my brother’s place.  Now, I haven’t seen my brother in possibly 30 years.  Zowie!  I had no reason to visit Greenville and he doesn’t travel far from home, so that’s just how it was.

Here’s a photo of my brother and sisters.  I’m guessing from about 1962.  The quality is bad because the picture got wet.  It’s actually permanently adhered to the glass from the frame it was in.

I couldn’t find many pictures of Jim and none of the two of us together.  While my entire family has been big picture takers, a lot of my photographs were damaged from water leaking into the closet I stored them in way back in the 80s.  After my Dad died, I discovered that many of his pictures were also water damaged from a water heater flood. Bummer.

And here we are now!

Jim lives next door to the house we were all raised in so I took a little walk to check it out.

Here’s my little sister and me standing by the front door.  No idea when, while Dad took lots of pictures, no one wrote dates on them.  And as I looked through my box of old photos, I see that I have continued the tradition!

I’m guessing this next one was taken back in 1983, possibly the winter before mom and dad moved to Florida.

And here’s what it looks like today!  Quite an improvement.

While I was standing in front of the house taking pictures, the owner came out. So did she think that I was a crazy lady stalking her house?  No, she saw our SUV at Jim’s place and assumed that I was his sister.  Did I mention that this house is way out in the country with very neighbors?  Everyone notices everything!  So she gave me a tour of the house.  She even let Maggie in (who promptly fell down the steps).

So it was a great trip and I hope I get to see everyone again before another 40 years elapses!