Reflection on nostalgia

If I had a chance to go back to some of the places Doris and I visited this week, I thought of two. First of all, I would love to spend more time in Delaware and Virginia. It was wonderful, actually that word is not sufficient to describe what was bottled up in our experience back to Norfolk where we had so many childhood experiences. For me it was the place of my first pizza, snowball fights, frigid nose and finger tips, of course seeing snow from a baywindow, my first kiss though I could n't have been more than eight, going rollerskating and drinking hot cocoa afterwards, listening to American bandstand and falling in love with Frankie Avalon. When my mother was preganant with my little sister Sarita, I would sing "Venus if you will, please send a little girl for me to thrill, etc..." Obviously, I wanted a little sister,though Frankie's lyrics were not about a little sister, that is what I was singing about, and then Sarita was born. It was magical. Things were a little different in that neighborhood then with segregation. Now I noticed it was more integrated and of course that is good. The run down houses across the fence are gone and the beautiful neighborhood down the street is as beautiful as ever in Meadowbrook. We got to go down the street to the elementary school of the same name and rode around it several times taking pictures from all angles, and I am sure some people must've found us suspicious, but back to the house. The most recent owner for the past 30 plus years, allowed us to walk around the back yard. Doris didn't dare but I did and I took pictures. It was eerie to find the yard and house almost intact, with the same walkway made of old moldy square pavers, still lopsided. I noticed the porch was still there which reminded me of the time a swarm of bees hovered outside it and frighten us half to death. Sure there was new molding, but the house still looked the same. I could find my old room with the small window which I shared with Doris. Doris could remember the names of most of her friends on Paul street where we would play jumprope with everybody on the street sometimes. How fun were those days. It turns out that my bestfriend, Eileen Moore, has a brother Bud, still living across the street,at 1309 Milton Street. Now it is time to catch up on old friends. I am so glad we went back.