Remembering

I can close my eyes and drift back home for a few minutes. Many people talk about how much they miss this place or that: one business or another. I miss my Mama and Daddy. My brother and my grandparents. My sister when she was a teen. I miss walking along Meridian Street. I miss walking down the alley to my grandparent's house. It was the kind of place where everyone knew each other. Mothers were always home and watched out for all the kids. At lunchtime, we often ate over at someone's house and then right out to play again. The afternoons were hot, and everyone was outside looking for a cool breeze. It was an inner-city neighborhood that had brick sidewalks and a corner store. 

I miss the front porch swing and hearing Mama sing, You Are My Sunshine. I miss the warmth of the people that I loved and that loved me. I miss the babies, my niece, and nephews, now adults with grown children and grandchildren. I miss my cousins and catching lightning bugs in a jar and playing freeze tag and baseball. 

I miss our neighbors in the 1000 block of Meridian and those behind us in the 1000 block of Pennock. Wilson and Ladye Hurt were next door at 1015 Meridian. Hattie and Robert White lived at 1013. The Newby, Tunstall, Williams, Morrissey, Raymer, Banniza, and many other families lived up and down the block. Living across the alley, on Pennock was my Oeser grandparents, known as Mama and Papa Oeser, to every kid in the neighborhood. Other people on that block were Conquest, Charleton, Bishop, Carey, Crouch, Allen, Birdwell, Denson, and Hackett. 

There are so many things left only to memory. All of the buildings could remain, which would not remove the longing for just a few minutes back with all my people from the past.