Back Home Again

I just love goin' back home again (to the tune of "On the Road Again").....Long Island, NY, that is!  I grew up on Long Island, and moved up North when I was 16, when my dad retired to "Upstate New York".  As my brother reminded me, when we moved to the "middle of the Island", it was country; we had a dirt road and rural mailboxes.  

Soooo many great memories live inside my mind, and I love to go back to the Island to visit my brother, and to revisit where some of these memories took place.  I did not take pictures of them this time, and I cannot find good ones on the web. 

We took a visit back to the house we grew up in, and drove around the neighborhood.  Of course so much has changed.  "The Corner" which used to be woods, where many games were played; hide and seek, war, where the "guys" "hung out".  My friend's house where we sold minnows we caught at Lake Ronkonkoma, and then sold them to the neighborhood kids, and no trip would be complete without driving down the HUGE Hill on Grassy Pond Drive!  It really is BIG as you drive towards it, you cannot see over the nose of your car!

Lake Ronkonkoma

Grassy Pond Drive HILL Sattelite view from Google

I miss the days of playing kickball in the street, curb ball, flipping for baseball cards, pocket knives, chicken, riding your bike all day long in the summer where ever you wanted to go.  Walking to Weld's Lake with some bread and string, and "making a fishing pole" with a stick and string, and mushing the bread to the end of the string for bait.  We thought we were fishing.  LOL.  So many Adventures!  

Going to the beaches - Little Africa, Long Beach, Short Beach.  And on the way to one of them, up on a hill was an old house, and we called it the witch's house....  Cannot find pictures of the beaches either!  Yikes!

I DO however, have a picture of the Smithtown Bull.  It is Ginormous!  Short story of the bull is that John Smith Saved a Squaw, and as a thank you, the Chief told John he would give him whatever land he could cover while riding a bull.  You can look this up on line and get the full story.  For some reason my older girls get a kick out of this bull, so as we drove by, the camera was clicking!

And last but not least, my brother Tommy gave me a ride in his 1950 (?) Ford Pick Up.  LOVE IT!  He even burned rubber for me (and the grand kids)

We are due back in September, just because, and we'll be reminiscing (and taking photos!)