Haunting Old Haunts

Last week, in the company of my (much) older brother Larry, who was visiting from California, I spent some time driving around the neighborhoods in which I grew up, primarily Silverton, in Cincinnati. One of the places we visited was my (and Larry's) elementary school, which is now called Silverton Paideia School--but when I attended was simply Silverton Elementary School.

I'm so glad we stopped in, because the school secretary informed us that--though NO ONE asked US--a new school is being built, and our alma mater will be demolished toward the end of the year. To add to the horror of the situation, there were no photos or memorial plaques anywhere on the school grounds identifying it as the school I had attended. So very disappointing.

But the sprawling school was alive with activity, and appeared to be tremendously well-run.

Larry (who is much older than I, in case I forgot to mention that) remembered the layout of the sprawling school; I didn't, but I did remember very well playing on the playground. It's the important stuff that sticks with me.

In the same vein, we soon after made our way up Plainfield Road and across Montgomery, where Larry remembered the turn to Ficke Park (I think), where he and I both played little league ball--though my single season in C Ball was extremely uneventful. I coulda been a star but my coach was apparently no judge of talent.

The field is still there, though not trimmed. And the backstop looked to be original. I offered to race Larry around the base paths, but he astutely pointed out that there were no base paths.

We visited other spots, like Mike's Pony Keg, which got Larry real excited for some reason, and Woodward, Larry's high school. Also (of course) the two houses we once lived in in Silverton, Daniel Drake Park, and the Redwood Pony Keg, where I shoplifted for the first time--and got caught (again, no plaques commemorating the historic event). It was a fun walk down Memory Lane, and one that made me feel much younger than my thirty-nine years.