Halloween on Pine Valley Drive

Ryan, Halloween 2012, Buzz Lightyear

The last day of October always brings fall excitement.  Running to my parent's home on Halloween night to see my almost 4 year old  nephew  Ryan make his yearly costume debut visit. This year a light up and flashing Buzz Lightyear. Buzz visited shortly before he was flying off to infinity and beyond to trick or treat with the cousins. Something felt different. Not only had the costumes changed, the same house where I used to ready for the tour of the neighborhood trying to score  the most candy of the night just didn't seem the same.  

Halloween 1975

The neighborhood was still hustling with little children and the doorbell ringing. My mother still so excited to answer the door as my father sat in his chair reading the paper.  Mom  knew all the little children and I realized that I knew no one, didn't recognize a single face.  My childhood neighborhood was filled with strangers.  As I pulled out of the driveway, I drove past Mr. Martin's to see his silhouette at the front door greeting trick or treaters before he left for Florida in the morning for the winter season.

Halloween 1972

One thing didn't change, the fall decor I rememberd and loved on the night of Halloween growing up  on Pine Valley Drive.  The fallen leaves covering the street, the dark and mysterious walkways.  The hike up the hilly driveways and cutting through the woods and the flashlights glaring in the dark. The memories were all coming back as I drove off.

PVD house lot 1963 Mom, Debbe and Kathy

What was obvious to me now was how caught up I was in my adult life that I had forgotten that this neighborhood full of childhood memories has designed my daily life and molded me into the person I was today.

Summer 1967, Kathy, Randy, Danny, Debbe

Winter, 1967, Kathy, Debbe, Nick

Pine Valley Drive had the best memories for me.  The Marsdens, the Martins, the Edwards, the Callerys, the Pouliots. We had the best neighbors, the best neighborhood for Halloween, the best kickball games in the streets and the best tree forts ever!  The Sunday backyard football games with Dad and Uncle Ted and the snow days sledding down the middle of the street and ice skating in the cove on Beaver Brook; such memories. Why? We all had the best parents, siblings and families.  For myself and my sisters and brother it was our "big fat Greek upbringing". We, our childhood friends, were the original Pine Valley Drive dwellers for all of our childhood to college to leaving the nest lives where some of our parents still live.  This Is Home!

Mom, Spring 1977, Gina arrives in 1976

What had changed? It was the  realization that the aging process had begun and Halloween night took me back to my childhood days growing up in my parents home since I was a one year old.  Pine Valley Drive has played a large part in "designing my daily life".  What childhood memories have designed yours?