It's funny how my mind works. "Poison ivy" popped up on the TV and my mind went to my sister Sandy who used to have a severe reaction to poison ivy and poison sumac (I don't know if she still does, have to ask her). Seems she used to spend a good part of each summer covered with calamine lotion.
My mind then went to our home on Seagraves Road in Coventry, and what a wonderful time and place it was. From when we moved there in 1952 until we moved out to Bridgeport in 1960 was a very idyllic time, a very white bread, TV perfect time (not in reality but in memory for sure).
Our ranch house sat on about a half acre; there was a beautiful oak tree in the back yard, a huge weeping willow out front and a row of pine trees along Seagraves. I remember a cherry tree and a crab apple tree, lilacs, morning glories - so many flowers (the previous owner planted all kinds of flora). The house itself was really an expanded cottage like so many others in Coventry (Coventry used to be a summer place for people from Hartford, New Haven, and even New York City) but it was a castle to us kids.
Across the street was the Nathan Hale State Forest. Directly across from us there was a swamp full of skunk cabbage. Down the street, with an old road across from the Forrest's was the dry pine forest. We used to go in there and make lean-to huts out of downed pine boughs.
I remember in the spring and early summer we used to go out to South Street just a bit towards the Nathan Hale Homestead and pick wild strawberries from the side of the road. They were tiny but so sweet! If we went down Seagraves toward where the Dory's lived there were blackberry or raspberry plants growing wild.
My brother Doug (Hotch) was born while we lived on Seagraves. He used to cause us all kinds of trouble and fun. I remember once when we had relatives over, must have been some kind of family picnic, Doug disappeared. I remember my mom and dad frantically searching the woods - all the neighbors were involved. Everyone was sure he was trapped in the swamp or something else terrible had become of him. My cousin Betty Jean Lacelles eventually found him asleep in our bedroom. I can't remember for sure but I think for some reason he was under the bed. He'd just gone inside to play, gotten tired and fell asleep.
My mind keeps wandering - My mom and dad had a nice circle of friends. Some were from the American Legion Post 57, one family was related to my dad (the Gronbacks) and one, the Morgan's I think from my dad's service station.
The Morgan's lived on a large "estate" in on North River Road, North Coventry. There was Ford and Helen, and four boys of which I can only remember two, John and Paul (Paul was my age). The Morgan's had horses (Morgan horses of course), a large pond (that used to be part of a fish hatchery, rabbits, chickens, probably a cow or two. We used to spend a lot of time at the Morgan's. Mrs. Morgan seemed like a perfect TV mom, always cooking, always dressed nicely, etc. I remember she used to make root beer and ice cream from scratch.
I think my mind has stopped reminiscing for now.
