Amongst other things

[derien]

Yesterday as we were working in the back yard the neighbor from up the street came down and asked what we were up to. Nice guy, very Old Mainer. To the extent that I wondered if he was putting it on, assuming we were from away. :) (He used to sit on his front steps with a Siamese cat last summer, and Eor always made it a point to wave when he saw the guy out, but I almost think he must have lost his cat sometime in the end of last summer. It was down at our place quite often, using the dirt under the bushes by our living room window for a litter box, but then we stopped seeing it. I didn't want to ask.) Anyhow, it was cool to meet him and chat about when the railroad actually used the little outbuilding.

I have a million things to do, and I'm really not joking, because we're leaving for England on Thursday!!! Ran out of printer paper as we were printing up our sheets of Important Things To Have - confirmation numbers, addresses, phone numbers, itinerary etc. I ended up handwriting all the addresses of family to send post cards to - how retro! I really should just have an address book to carry with me; I waste more paper scribbling numbers on the backs of envelopes, and more time turning on the computer to look stuff up. All my attempts at address books in the past have failed, though, because I have to sit down and write out all the addresses into the book.

Anyway, must be off to the grocery store - I should have left a half hour ago.

Comments

[cyberquail.livejournal.com]

I love old-timers, and the stories they're able to tell about bygone days. It always makes me feel strangely nostalgic for times I never knew, and sad to know that their stories will be lost with them when they go. Even something as simple as "when the railroad actually used the little outbuilding" evokes a whole set of images (to me anyway) of a bustling, railroad-centered society that's lost to America now. It's probably not something you'd want in your back yard, of course, but the idea of it makes me happy.