"The Castle"
I'm playing along with Travis today. If you'd like to play too, give him a shout and he'll link you up!
In my previous post I made mention of our previous next-door neighbors (actually, the whole post is about them).
This post is about them too. :)
Before we moved in to our new home in 1998, I needed someone to check my mailbox for the checks I'd just ordered from the bank. The next door neighbors seemed the logical choice, so I rang the doorbell. Two really nice, elderly people came to the door and introduced themselves as Charles and Eleanor. They happily agreed to keep an eye out for our checks and said they looked forward to us moving in.
I thought to myself: "These people, as nice as they seem, are going to hate me for moving in next door with a loud, obnoxious 2-yr-old (my only kid at the time).
Was I ever wrong. These two people, who are now 95 and 97 years old, turned out to be the most wonderful neighbors ever in the world. They treated us like family. The showed my son where the cookie jar was and invited him to help himself whenever he came over (which was almost every day). They told us to call them Uncle Charlie and Aunt Eleanor. It was like having my favorite grandparents living next door. I adored them then and I still do now.
Uncle Charlie and Aunt Eleanor bought a Fisher-Price castle for one of their grandchildren sometime in the mid-1980's. (see photo above). This castle has been the favorite attraction for all 3 of my children, plus countless other children visiting the home of Charlie and Eleanor. The above photo was taken the other day. My two younger boys, even though they are 7 and 9, still want to play with the castle when they go to Charlie and Eleanor's house.
Maybe this is not such a great "memoir". But any castle I now see brings Eleanor and Charlie to my mind along with countless memories of my time living next door to them as well as memories we've made since moving away. I hope that is true for the rest of my life.
Happy Monday. :)
1 comment:
It's great to have neighbors like that. We had them when I was growing up. One neighbor kid who was 5 years older than me, would stop by on his way home, stick his head in the front door and yell, “Hey, Mrs. Coffey! You have any fried pies today?” Mom tired to keep them available for him. His older sisters taught me to cuss. They thought it was funny. Bitches!
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