Our drive to Cincy involves a trip through The Region. The Region is what the locals call the area – as in the Calumet Region. “Calumet Region” defines the group of towns & cities surrounding the Calumet River and the Little Calumet River (affectionately referred to as “The Little Cal”) in NW Indiana.
It’s where DIY Guy and yours truly entered this world. It is where we learned to ride a two-wheeler, lost our skate keys, experienced our first kisses, graduated from high school, were married, and is the place we left 29+ years ago when we loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly Upstate New York.
When I was in 8th Grade, my parents moved (a HORRIBLE time to uproot an adolescent by the way) to another part of the region. The homes were newer and bigger — and our new house had 5 bedrooms — one for each daughter, and one for mom and dad, and two bathrooms! Best of all, there was a pool in the backyard.
This is the neighborhood I lived in from 8th grade to age 22.
The trees are a bit bigger now, they have always seemed to frame the streets.
Our house is on the right…at the end of the road.
That’s the porch where DIY Guy kissed me good-night after our dates,
and the yard my sisters and I did endless handstands and cartwheels on –
this is where I lived.
DIY Guy lived in this house — about a mile from my house.
However, he didn’t grow up in this house —
his folks moved here when he was in college.
Both our families had lived in the same town prior to our moves.
This is the house we took our kids to visit Grandma and Grandpa
when we drove the 14 hours from NY to IN twice a year
before Grandma and Grandpa moved to St. Louis.
As we were driving by the house, we noticed their old neighbor Wayne, sitting out in front of his garage, so DIY Guy stopped to say hello to a former neighbor.
Wayne was happy we stopped. In Wayne’s words, “Every now and then Norma would bake me an apple pie. They sure tasted good. Ralph and Norma sure were good neighbors. I miss them.”
Are people still “neighborly”? How are you a good neighbor? What would your neighbors say about you?
