City Streets

One of the advantages of working in numerous schools throughout the city is I have driven to places that I have never been before.

I'm a creature of habit. As a rule, I take the same route to the same destination time and time again. I don't have an adventuresome spirit when it comes from getting from Point A to Point B.

Add to that, the fact that my destinations don't vary a lot ... and you can imagine how few city streets I have driven down over the course of the 24 years we have lived here. It's embarrassing.

Lately, I have been called to work at schools across the city. My aunt and uncle live in that neck of the woods and I had vague memories of their neighborhood from when I was a child. These memories snap, crackle and pop to life when I drive down those roads.

I was a naive country girl, so those city-memories stood out from the rest. Those city streets that hold some memories from my childhood ...

One time, we took a city bus and we went down town to see a movie. Just us kids! Granted, there were a bunch of us and my older cousin was with us ... but I still couldn't believe that we were given such independence. I'd never ridden a city bus before that day. I doubt that I'd ever been further than that corner candy store of theirs, without a parent at my side.

We walked to the outdoor swimming pool in their neighborhood. Once again ... there was a big group of us. I believe I was a little older by this time. It's just another one of those memories that stands out because it was so out of the norm for me.

But one thing that we must have done with some sort of regularity (when we came to visit our big-city cousins), was walk to their corner store and buy a treat. I can picture Dad digging through his pocket to hand out some of his change ...

I can picture those summer days ... walking past their neighbors. Their neighbors called them by name and their was a sense of security as we meandered down the quiet street that took us to the store.

I remember the stores on that corner. I can picture us walking home with those much anticipated treats in our hands. Those hazy, crazy days of summer. Light hearted childhood memories ...

I worked at a school this week where I drove past those corner stores that hold a fragment of my childhood within them.

As I drove to work ... then home again ... and was called back to work at that same school the next day and drove past that corner two more times, I wistfully thought to myself 'Who would have guessed that I would be driving past this corner that held such light and easy memories from my childhood over 40 years later?'

The idea of me moving to this particular city in my adulthood was not in the cards for me. Originally, we lived on a farm an hour or so southeast of this city. We moved in a huge metropolis five hours to the west of here when I was nine years old. I thought that I had packed my bags and moved out of this province permanently.

So I get a happy little thrill when I drive on these streets filled with carefree memories of a childhood well spent. Just one more way in which I feel that I have come home again.