Evergreens and Weeping Willow

    So our house was on the corner. The front of the house faced Heinrich Road, but the driveway was on Valley Circle Lane. For the little girl and her mother, Heinrich was the major highway to be stayed away from, and Valley Circle was the little road that I could practice looking both ways before crossing and the road for watching and waiting for Dad to come home from work at the end of each day. Valley Circle Lane was indeed a circle – I can still picture almost every house on both sides of the circle. I can see Kathy and Patty B and their high school sorority sisters walking in step down the street on Friday nights. And I can see Dean L crossing our backyard on a cold winter's afternoon and knocking over our carefully built snowman, and Mom shrugging it off as something that boys do.

    In the summer when Mom would insist we go out to play, we played on the bedroom side of the house in the morning where the shade was, and then we played on the kitchen or Valley Circle Lane side as the afternoon wore on and the shade from the house grew on that side. We played with other kids nearby who had also been told to go outside. I think we mostly played “family” pretending to be moms, dads, kids. There may have been some superheroes too. And witches. Wish I could remember more.

    Before I was born Dad had planted some evergreens along the road leading to the driveway on Valley Circle Lane – one of the trees died early on and when you looked out the kitchen window from the dinner table, there was a space between the evergreens where the dead tree had been. One year there was a bird nest and some babies, I think robins, in one of the trees – we watched the activity from the dinner table that summer, until Mr. Reitz's cat, Moochie, from next door got to the babies. Mom and Dad did not get upset. That's what cats do, and that's that.

    In the front yard, Dad planted a weeping willow. It grew bigger every year. But the front yard had enough room for playing Red Rover Red Rover, and Red Light Green Light, even hide and seek and tag with the neighborhood kids. And in the back yard, eventually there was a swingset – I would fantasize about being a gymnast or trapeze artist someday.

the evergreens on Valley Circle Lane 2009

    When I go back to Buffalo on the occasional visit, I drive by the old house and try to imagine the five of us there back in those days. The evergreens are so big! They stretch right up to the clouds! You can't even tell there was a dead tree space there once. And the weeping willow takes up the entire front yard! It is all shade. Gardens and hedges have come and gone over the years – but the house still has its draw for me, filled as it is with so many memories!

11 20150111 Evergreens and Weeping Willow