75 Marsden St.

This is the house that I grew up in, but this is NOT the house I grew up in.

Huh? Let me explain...

The house has changed so much since I've lived there over 20yrs ago. Of course any house changes with time, but the changes to the house on 75 Marsden street sadden me. This may have been the house I grew up in, but it looks nothing like it. This house looks worn, small, neglected and sad. Yes....a house can look sad. The memories I have are of a bright yellow house, with an open porch that extends to the full length of the house. Why did the new owners enclose half of the porch...makes no sense to me. I loved that porch. Rainy days, you could sit out there and watch the rain fall, I played with my Barbies out there. That porch is the reason I want a porch when I buy a house.

The 3 huge pine trees in the front were full and thriving. You weren't able to see past their bulk...now they are bare and dying. Mommy use to have rose bushes along side of the house, they are long gone...just like her. This was the last place Mommy lived before she died of cancer. So many precious memories. Memories of sleepovers with cousins and girlfriends, magical Christmases, endless summer days playing in the yard. Precious memories of Mommy. Coming home after school to a house smelling of lilacs, because Mommy had made huge bouquets from the bushes out back. We had 3 lilac bushes in our backyard, along with plum trees. We had two snowball bushes that Karen and I loved to play in between. We had one row of grapes. Yep, just one, but the grapes were good. Daddy also had a garden. He planted all kinds of vegtables. There was a huge horse chestnut tree in the backyard, which we loved to play under and have chestnut fights. Behind the house was also the clothes line. Remeber haning your clothes out to dry? I can still see Mommy hanging the clothes in the summer. It was paradise, or at least when I think of it now. While growing up, I sometimes hated it and wanted to leave so bad. Funny how your perspective changes when you grow up.