You can't go home again?

Took a trip back to the old neighborhood (Long Island). This falls in the category of a major time killer - an all-day affair. When you visit the Island you just expect traffic and we got it. Figured a weekday would be the best bet - was busy but I'm sure a weekend would be worse.

I can recall my parents driving into their old neighborhood (Brooklyn) and pointing out their old haunts. I was born there but it may as well be the Moon for all I know about Flatbush. I just remember the cobblestone streets and my mother nervously driving some kind of monster Buick with Dyna-flo.

As we've done a few times in the past and on this Long Island venture, we visited all our old houses. The constant is that there are changes and in some cases many changes. Even our basic starter home (Cape Cod) is now a new color, has a bunch of skylights, different landscaping, new windows and a significant privacy fence. Overall it looked good and the neighborhood looked better today than 20 years ago when we left. It's just strange to see how little room there is in-between homes. I can recall our neighbor's teen-age son sitting on their back stoop talking on the phone and we could hear every word as he could almost rest his legs on our stoop.

The changes in the other neighborhoods were significant. Interesting what vinyl can do to a home. We visited and photographed my parent's main home which is barely recognizable. It used to look like a combination of the Alamo and a Taco Bell. Now it just looks like an old stucco home trying to be hip and modern. Saw some other friend's homes and they were equally different (except for a few)..

Growing up we spent almost every summer day at either our local beach, in the canal across the street, out in our boat or over at the ocean. The ocean could have been Tobay, West End, Zack's Bay, Gilgo or Hemlocks (an undeveloped cove with great surfing on the ocean side). I guess this explains the current need for constant dermatological appointments. I think I paid the price for a sunburn I got in 1966.

We did drive to Jones Beach during this trip and went to the big daddy of all parking lots (4) and took the long walk to the water - not fully prepared for swimming of sunning. During our days on Long Island we never went to field 4 - too crowded and too much noise. This was our only choice now.

Out of all the points of nostalgic interest, we felt a real resonance when we visited our first apartment. Many memories from 35 years ago - sort of like a "Barefoot in the Park" scenario I guess. A 3-story walk up in this converted Tudor building built at the turn of the century. It had a dumb waiter, no bedroom, a sliver of a kitchen, a pink and black bathroom and a broken front door which was held together with some plastic wood provided by our non-handy landlord. I felt safe though since who the hell is going to rob us and haul our stuff 3 flights down?

The building was mostly boarded up on this day and looked to be under renovation. I was wondering if they were going to go Vinyl.. Vinyl is final.