Monday, November 29, 2010

My 9 mile Thanksgiving Day Urban Adventure

Thanksgiving morning I had a course all planned out. Mom's house down Military to West Ave to Jackson-Keller up Vance Jackson to Dreamland back to Mom's house for a total of 5 miles.


Well, I got started down Military and thought about how cool it would be to continue south and see if I could find Chuck Dakin's house and surprise him on Thanksgiving morning. The only information I had was that he lives on Storeywood and I remembered his white Lexus SUV.


As I ran down West Ave it seemed odd to be running this road after having traveled it so many times by car. After having mentally commited to it I realized that I know the names of all the streets in the neighborhood but I couldn't even try to tell you where they are except for Pilgrim of course.


As I crossed LP 410 the daydreaming and reminiscing began. Bill Miller on the corner. A man named English used to run a beatup old auto repair shop on the property just south of Bill Miller. Continuing south and across the street is The Little Red Farm School that was owned by an old friend's parents. I notice the pool has been filled in with dirt. Farther south we have the Columbia 300 bowling ball company. There's a parking lot that used to be a nice flat grassy area that guys used to play football on on the weekends. I remember driving by and seeing the older boys playing and wished I was big enough to play with them.


When I got to Columbia 300 I turned right, crossed the tracks and then turned left heading north on Neer. I told myself not to zone out.....to remember to focus on every street name as I ran by. It's so easy to daydream while running and miss stuff......maybe that's part of the appeal. I continued down Neer and off to my left I was surprised to be looking across West Ave right down the length of the railroad tracks.


"The tracks" were an endless bounty of imagination and play as a kid. If a train was coming we'd put coins on the tracks for the trains to flatten. There were always beer bottles. We'd set them up on the tracks and throw rocks at them. There were usually empty train cars left there. We'd climb all over them. All we had to do get to the tracks was cross our street, walk the length of the house across the street from ours and we were there. That was the way to the Buy-Rite. Buy-Rite was a small neighborhood grocery store that my Mom would send me to for small items.


I got to the end of Neer and there was the old gas station remodeled but appearing empty. Back then there were lots of gas stations not owned by corporations and this was one of them. The guy who owned this one had a huge reputation for a being a grouch. One of my memories of this place is buying used tires for my truck because I couldn't afford new ones. I turned south on West Ave again and looked across the street at an old strip center.

It held the barbershop where I used to get my hair cut. It also had a beauty salon where my Grandmother went to get her hair done on Friday afternoons. This is the center that holds the Buy-Rite grocery store I mentioned earlier. Continuing south there used to be a field at the end of the shopping center that I imagined DD and I walking thru on the way to crossing the four lanes of West Ave. We didn't like what Mom was serving for lunch one Saturday afternoon so she told us to go to Mama Dee's. "Maybe you'll like what she's serving better", is what she said. So, we did it. We arrived at Mama Dee's and she and Pa didn't know what to think. Needless to say Mom was not happy.

I continued up the hill and after a few more blocks got to Storeywood. I was about to turn right but realized those streets have one block the opposite direction that deadends into Neer. I thought, "now wouldn't it be just my luck to run the entire long four blocks one direction and his house be on the short side. So, I ran the short block and no white Lexus so I doubled back on Basswood. I ran and walked all of Storeywood and didn't see his vehicle.

Well, I was disappointed but kept on moving. I doubled back on Basswood, slowed and then stopped at Pilgrim Park. What memories that held!! Playing on the playground equipment, birthday parties and the first pool I can ever remember being in. I can remember learning how to swim in that pool.

I got to Vance Jackson, turned left and headed back to Mom's house pleased with myself and wondering why I hadn't done this sooner.

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