What Matters Most

What Matters Most

Thoughts From My Childhood 

So many memories …. where do I start ….The Big Green Tent in the backyard, or boat at Sea Tuck Cove dock.

The night before a frost, "Get your old cloths on." Picking tomatoes by the bushels, not one left behind, last picking before Winter.

We had the routine though, assembly line formed in our Kitchen.  Mama, grandma, kids and the constant sound of that blender.

Grandpa the Commander-In Chief….  in charge of theatrics in the garden, or his homemade pasta, bread or struffoli, downstairs in his little kitchen.

   Grandma’s got her shoe stuck in the mud.  Zucchini hanging from the pear tree, over the mulch pile in       the distance. Apple trees out back, endless supply of weapons for throwing.  The pool next door needing        a cleaning every single summer morning.

Strawberries, dirt bombs and rotten tomatoes, white shirts…."What a disaster!" from our well stocked arsenal.

Going to work with Dad in the summer, helping him clean up his classroom.  Hanging out with that life like droid Dad called Mergatroid.  

Raiding the candy machine in the teachers lounge, bugging him for the change….So we could buy enough milk chocolate snowcaps, and Yoo Hoo to get us through the day.  

 The planets on the ceiling lined up in a row.  The specimens in formaldehyde, stored behind all those glass doors below.

Remember Dad’s back office, I wished was my own.  The scent of the books, & classroom lingers on .. a familiarity I’ll always know.

Yellowstone was great, except for poor Carpenter.  My innocent little doll still resting at the bottom of a cliff near Grand Canyon.

Patti and I singing and playing with our Pebbles erasers, or fighting like nut cases, driving everyone in the car completely crazy.

The old Blue Station Wagon what a sight in a half.  It is amazing we fit all the things that we had.  The stickers of each state lined the back window ... with near perfection, completely level all next to each other.

"Beware of falling rocks," barely hanging off a cliff.  Petrified Forest, Mount Rush More, Old Faithful, Hot Springs, Grand Canyon, warm fires, lightening storms, cuddling together, and the little Dachshund puppy we found named Bandito.

Driving for the very first time, yes….with my brother Vinnie.  Remembering my life flash in front of me, as he tore backward out of the driveway.

Driving on Terry Road was never quite as exciting.  The thrill of Vinnie applying the accelerator, forgetting the break pedal existed.  The Chevy Chevette in Colony Hill parking lot, awesome….and so amazingly exhilarating.

Mowing the lawn and raking it every single Saturday, did not like it then but yard work now,  I find incredibly meditative.

So many other memories .... so many to mention .... but .... some more would be:  candle making, cabinet refinishing, I loved that old workroom in the basement.

1226 Terry Road Ronkonkoma, New York, was my favorite place in the world.  The old telephone number 516-585-6141, remember dialing it like it were yesterday.

I loved being with my brothers and sisters, and all the fun things we did.

Tennis ball throwing in the backyard, from side to side .. throwing as fast as we could, badminton, hide and seek,  Friday night English muffin pizzas.

Big wheels in the basement, riding around to the sound of RUSH, Moving Pictures.  Ping pong, air hockey, pool, talent and puppet shows, singing the entertainment was never ending.

Grandpa humming and singing in Italian, in our second kitchen in the basement. Lionel Train set, and that secret hiding place under that big train table beneath it.

Listening to mom tell stories about the spiders dad tried to kill while sleeping.  Dad answering the bedroom door at night with his hair sticking straight up to the ceiling.

Putting out the saints, big light up candles and set of string lights across the top of the house. The huge Spruce tree in front, decorated with lights and red bows, A grand Christmas sight to every cargazing from down below.

That spruce tree when planted in the beginning, was little like us, the branches small and easy to touch. As the years went by it got bigger and matured, just like the children who surrounded it, on the cold festive nights.

Playing pee wee football in the new den with Vinnie’s great pass .... "Oh no, I missed!" Grandma’s breakfront….yes well you can figure out the rest …… :)

Playing outside on summer nights till it was dark.

Or snowstorms in winter, the slope dad would build us in the backyard.

The frozen ground the one year, when we made the backyard an ice rink.

The sleighs would start at the house, and glide all the way past the forsynthia.

Old Jack’s House the disaster that needed fixing.  Vinnie and Chris in the crawl space below, having a near death experience.  So many memories where do I end .... the list goes on, didn’t even get to our great lifelong friends.

What Mattered Most in much of our lives, the foundation that was built, and continues to be locked forever in our minds.  Evident through the years with new generations being born.  Continue to give us gifts and the new memories moving forward

With all the years that have passed in our lives, the good times outweighing the bad .... the happy outweighing the sad.  The fondest of memories are kept close to the heart, and will never be gone or disappear.

One thing that matters the most in my life today and always, were all of those old fashion values, they always stay with me.  Always a chill goes through my body, when I think of those long summer nights and the family and friends I grew up with.