Thanks for posting these. I always find it engaging and visually striking to see images of the places I used to call home; to see what has changed, and what has largely stayed the same. Such images conjure countless memories of the years I spent in those places, while providing stark and vivid reminders of how much time has transpired since I left.
78 Westervelt Place has clearly been remodeled, whereas Columbus Elementary School doesn't appear to have changed all that much. Nor does the little strip mall a couple hundred feet away, which features "Nick's Deli", formerly known as "Leto's". Their son was one of my classmates for the two years that we were there. I don't know if you remember this, but some kids used to go there and spend the money they were theoretically given to buy a relatively nutritious and balanced lunch to get candy and junk food instead. (I can honestly say I wasn't one of them. My nutritional disastrousness was largely confined to home.)
The middle school of course reminds me of the time when, in a cringy and ill-advised attempt to look cool I grabbed an empty beer bottle that happened to be lying around and wildly tossed it up in the air. What were the odds that it would make its way down somebody's chimney, and that a distinctly unamused and unimpressed cop would just happen to materialize shortly thereafter? Luckily I didn't get in any real trouble for that. I think he had a firm grasp of the situation: "Just some dumbass who appears to have learned his lesson. He probably won't do it again, no need to press charges or alert his parents."
To think it's been a little over four decades now since we left. But then when we moved to Lodi, we were literally only about a year removed from the time we spent in Bois-d'Arcy...
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Thanks for posting these. I always find it engaging and visually striking to see images of the places I used to call home; to see what has changed, and what has largely stayed the same. Such images conjure countless memories of the years I spent in those places, while providing stark and vivid reminders of how much time has transpired since I left.
ReplyDelete78 Westervelt Place has clearly been remodeled, whereas Columbus Elementary School doesn't appear to have changed all that much. Nor does the little strip mall a couple hundred feet away, which features "Nick's Deli", formerly known as "Leto's". Their son was one of my classmates for the two years that we were there. I don't know if you remember this, but some kids used to go there and spend the money they were theoretically given to buy a relatively nutritious and balanced lunch to get candy and junk food instead. (I can honestly say I wasn't one of them. My nutritional disastrousness was largely confined to home.)
The middle school of course reminds me of the time when, in a cringy and ill-advised attempt to look cool I grabbed an empty beer bottle that happened to be lying around and wildly tossed it up in the air. What were the odds that it would make its way down somebody's chimney, and that a distinctly unamused and unimpressed cop would just happen to materialize shortly thereafter? Luckily I didn't get in any real trouble for that. I think he had a firm grasp of the situation: "Just some dumbass who appears to have learned his lesson. He probably won't do it again, no need to press charges or alert his parents."
To think it's been a little over four decades now since we left. But then when we moved to Lodi, we were literally only about a year removed from the time we spent in Bois-d'Arcy...