Growing Up

Mental preparations have officially begun for the "big move". My parents have sold the house to filthy Russians, and while there's really nothing more that can be said about that, I've started to make my peace with the fact that the house and the place I grew up in is no longer going to belong to me in a matter of weeks. I suppose it would be simple to say that I was going to move out anyway this year, which is stressful enough in itself (don't tell Jay that though). But just knowing that the rest of my family is going to be far away and not at 102 Cotter Ave is even harder. Tom is going off to college, my parents are moving to the ass end of Long Island, and I'm just sort of still here.

The weather was nice yesterday, so I decided to go for a run in the neighborhood instead of the usual trip to Gateway. As I ran (and walked) up and down blocks I haven't been up and down since I was a kid on my bike and "allowed to go around the development", it really hit me that this is really the end of something big. I didn't cry over it or anything, so don't go getting that picture in your head.


After I finished running, showered and got dressed again, I went over to the "green area" at the end of my block (I haven't referred to it as "the green area" in years) and walked through the patch of woods into the Jewish cemetary. It's funny how things change. When I was a kid, the woods used to be bigger, and the cemetary further away. Now most of the woods have been bulldozed away and dead Jews are living there now. Even the little pond that we used to dare each other to walk on when it was frozen in the winter is gone. More dead Jews. I walked through the cemetary some, it was nice just to walk around and think. It was warm and totally silent out there. Dead Jews make very little noise. It was funny to think about how, as a kid, the woods were totally off limits. Threats of tics, broken glass, devil worshipers, rusty nails and rabid animals come to mind (I SWEAR I saw a devil worshiper once back there in a black hooded cape). But it wasn't so bad. I guess everything just seems bigger and badder as a kid.

So yesterday was my day to make peace with the neighborhood. I'll probably never go into those woods again. Plus I am a living Gentile, not a dead Jew- so that further ensures my chances.

So I guess I'm a little bit more ready now than I was before.