My parents went to visit my younger brother and his family in North Carolina last week, and the idea of a family reunion was brought up. Next year, 2024 marks 30 years from my graduation of high school, and it also marks the last time I visited NH. I brought up the idea of maybe having our family reunion there since it's been so long, and also I would love to show our kids where their mom grew up.
Once everyone was on board with the idea, I decided to make a group chat, so we can all discuss plans together. I titled it "Tentative NH Trip 2024". I added the picture of The Old Man on the Mountain as the group picture, may he rest in peace 😓
Over the weekend, Eric and I have been reminiscing of our childhood there. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Top memories of ours mostly took place at our first home on Clifton Road. And the surrounding sites, where we played. The red bridge that straddled Bedford and Merrimack. In fact, our friends who's parents built a huge red home on that property by the bridge, their home was half in Bedford and half in Merrimack. They specifically built the kids bedrooms on the Bedford side so their kids could go to the Bedford Schools. Honestly, I'm not sure that really mattered, but it was a good story they told, LOL.
Eric was born 7 years after me in September. I still have a vivid memory of being called down to the principal office in elementary school to be told I had a new baby brother. It was a great day for me because I was an only child for 7 years, and I was actually very happy to have a baby sibling. If I'm being totally honest, I was kinda hoping for a sister, so we could have more in common, but I still was very happy to have a baby brother. It was especially meaningful because my mom had had several miscarriages after I was born, and before and after Eric was born. My parents wanted a big family, but they ended up fortunate with 2 healthy children.
Some of the memories we talked about were the Stowell bridge, and the building next to it that we called the bait house. It was fun to climb on! We also played by the pond and on and around the bridge. It wasn't always Red and grande. Before they built the red bridge, it was a basic natural wood bridge. Both are good memories to us. Our family would often take Sunday walks to the bridge and we would throw rocks into the stream below. We talked about the pond by the bridge, and Eric's wife asked if we ever went ice skating in the winter. We sure did, and it was fun! I did mention the scary time one of my friends skated on thin ice and fell through the ice into the water. Thankfully, I was right there and able to pull her out of it. I get chills still thinking about what could have happened if we both had fallen through. NO one else was around. I'm thankful to this day we survived that scary incident!!
Anyway, here are a few pictures of our childhood...our Clifton home was originally an ugly mustard color when we lived there. It actually looks pretty nice now with it's new colors. The shed off to the right, our dad built while we lived there. I used to play in there all the time! When we visited Grandma Great in Saint George this past week, she reminded me of a memory when we went out to visit Utah when we were young. She said Eric was a young boy, maybe around 5, he asked them where all the trees were. I mentioned this to him, and he said "It's a good question" :)
Another funny memory that I have is when April Fools Day would come around, one year he asked "When is it going to be Eric Fool's Day?" When I mentioned this memory he said after becoming a dad, it feels like everyday is April Fools Day?! LOL
Anyway, hopefully everything works out and we can all make the trek to NH next year. I think it will be a good family memory!
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