Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Alley

The gravel alley curves to the right and left behind number eight on Pleasant Street.  The alley has a whole different life than the street in the front.  It leads to the barn next door to the left or the barn and Main Street to the right.  The barn to the right belonged to Joe's Hardware Store on Main Street.  A two story green building with a full length porch on the front, dark and old inside.  The owner Joe, a quiet, white haired, older man lived upstairs above the hardware store.  Bows and arrows in the sporting department caught my eye, I dreamed of  trying to shoot an arrow from the bow.   The old gray two story barn on the left has stories to be told.  The loft came in handy in the fall.  The neighbor boys and I jumped out of the second story loft into a big pile of the leaves many times.  No one was ever injured jumping as best I can remember.  The side of the barn facing number eight had a basketball hoop.  I can still hear the sound of the wooden screen door slam and a basketball being bounced on the sidewalk.  

The gravel alley was lined with garages or barns.  Mid block another alley crossed, at that point started the base of the hill.  A garden grew on the right side of the alley mid way up the street.
Hide and seek was played in the alley behind the house on Pleasant Street.  Out front games where kick ball, kick the can and on Randy's porch: King of the mountain.  King of the mountain contributed to the Ross's putting guards on the sides of the porch.  The porch was three steps off the ground so we all gathered on the porch and pushed each other off, hence King of the mountain.

I held firecracker's between my index finger and thumb and let it explode in the alley (luckily I still have my fingers).    Across the alley from the house I took baton lessons at the Boyer Dance Studio.  In later years a girlfriend lived in the apartment next door and across the alley.

All the memories of the alley are in the summer or warm weather.  I don't have any recall of the snow covered alley.

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