remembering place: a gift on a spring day
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When I was a teenager, my family lived in Lower Sackville in Nova Scotia. I went to Junior High and Senior High there and began my university days.
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I have many great memories of living in our house … of spending time with friends and family. I remember painting the kitchen cupboards with my Dad, painting a huge seascape on the living room wall, decorating the Christmas tree with the ‘help’ of our dog Snoopy, and doing homework and learning to sew while watching Audie Murphy movies. One of my earliest ‘projects’ was raising wild violets from seed along the back fence. I can remember spending hours on the phone with my friend Donna, pulling the long telephone cord down the basement stairs so I could sit and giggle in privacy.
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On that same phone, my sister and I practiced for days how we would be the tenth caller to win tickets to see Elvis Presley in Halifax. When the moment came, we counted the time just as we had carefully calculated. Then I dialed in, at the precise moment. They answered! And, in my excitement, I HUNG UP. My sister was so put out at me. And we will never know if we were the lucky tenth caller! We never did see Elvis in person.
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As an exercise for a writing class I am taking, I wrote a little about attending my best friend’s wedding after graduation in 1972. I walked to the church which was just at the bottom of our street. As I wrote the story, I thought how I would like to see that street, to better remember the walk I took. So, I went to Street View (Google Earth). I began at the top of the hill and virtually ‘walked ‘ along the street where I had lived. At the first of the walk, I saw our house in July of 2012, when the Street View image was taken. I was amazed to see how the trees we planted had grown … the house is hard to see !
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the house where we used to live, the trees all grown
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A few more ‘steps’ and Street View switched to an image taken in May of 2009. I turned back to ‘see’ the house. And this is what I saw …
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Forsythia in bloom in front of the house where I used to live
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My Mom loved the big Forsythia that grew in our front yard. She always said it reminded her of my grandmother (her mother). And there it was, in full bloom and grown huge over the 40 years since we lived there. What a lovely gift on a spring day!
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 
Not hard to tell that I did not have a pc for a while Jane,,,,I hope I am back,,,,,,nice memories ,,,,we drive by your old home quite a bit and we always comment about you and your family. You are “Blessed” to have had such memories.!
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patsi
May 31, 2014 at 6:54 am
Hi Patsi. It would be hard for you to be without a computer. Part of those memories is how good your family was to me! Jane
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jane tims
May 31, 2014 at 9:26 pm
I think I remember this picture of you as a child on the swing. 🙂 You were adorable! The story of your excitement causing you to hang up when you might have been the tenth caller to win Elvis Presley tickets made me laugh.
I wonder what caused the tree the second picture of your old house to fall? My sister still lives in the house where we grew up so I’ve never had the experience of seeing my home occupied by another family. The forsythia is gorgeous!
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Barbara Rodgers
May 21, 2014 at 10:15 am
Hi. I noticed the fallen tree too. It isn’t cut down, but pulled up right from the roots. I remember when Dad planted those trees. The picture of the swing was in one of my posts about my grandfather’s farm. Beside me is my ‘blanket’ which I kept with me until I was in Grade One!!!! Jane
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jane tims
May 21, 2014 at 8:11 pm
Strange.. first the wall did not exist and I had to mow that hill… we also played on it a lot. Dad was always worried I would cut my self mowing on that hill. The second is we had a double lot. Thats sold and there is another house there now. Time has passed so quickly. We have not lived there for roughly 40 years … how is that even possible.
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Stan Sapvold
May 21, 2014 at 8:28 am
Hi Lee. You are right about time passing quickly. I had forgotten the mowing issue. Remember the winter it snowed so much and we honeycombed the driveway hill with ‘forts and tunnels’? I also remember the year Dad bought us a snowmobile for Christmas and he surprised us on Christmas morning by driving it on to the front lawn so we could see it from the window. What did you think of the huge Forsythia??? Jane
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jane tims
May 21, 2014 at 8:08 pm
It is wonderful and sometimes scary to go back and to see where we lived. I’m glad for you that it was such a great experience and that the yard was beautiful and blooming sunshine.
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Carol Steel
May 21, 2014 at 7:17 am
Hi. I know what you mean. The first summer home we had as a young family has been torn down and replaced by a modern house. It was sad to see it gone because my Dad built it and it had a wonderful fireplace from rocks gathered all across Canada. Jane
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jane tims
May 21, 2014 at 8:04 pm