Chestnut St

After a couple of years of renting, it was time to make another try at home owning. One of the people Max worked with lived in Natick. A town about 15 miles from Everett. It was also much less city and much more suburb, at that time almost rural. A big old victorian style house was found and purchased. Now the move. This was the first time I was involved in a move. Believe me , it does not get better! 

Car load after car load, down the stairs over the balcony, ropes to lower some of the furniture, how I miss it! But I was definitely there then. Most of the trips went through Boston, out to Brookline and finally onto Rt. 9, ending at the new abode. All of our accumulated goods plus all the kids didn't begin to fill this place. But we tried. 

As this was a summer move we got some time off before school started. Remember going to see Max's friend Jack on the other side of town and  taking his boat out on Lake Cochituate. They were an older couple with no kids at home, so we didn't go over there very much. Later, I ended up working for Jack before the Navy. There were plenty of kids to play with and friendships started with the McGee's and their cousins the Healy's. Jim and Frannie McGee  lived across the street. His kids Connie and Jimmy were in our age group so we formed a quick alliance. Think that was the first time I realized girls might be something other than pains!

The Harwood boys lived down the street and around the corner. Their Dad owned a baseball factory near downtown. I wish now that I had visited the factory. Hindsight! They were the only friends of mine that had servants! We would be playing and a maid would knock and ask if we needed cookies. Even after all these years I find that pretty cool. When we built a tree house a carpenter did the work! Getting accustomed to luxury was nice, but reality was also very much in evidence. Big house, old windows (drafty? yep), old furnace (cold? yep), old roof (leaky? yep), lots of money to fix...never gonna happen! House proved to be an insurmountable problem. 

The struggle lasted for several months and we got another summer before the end, but the end came. 

My downtown trips to the library were coming to an end. The first girl that invited me to her house for supper (Paula) ended up disappointed, at least in MY memories she did. But, we were headed back to Everett. Paris Street. Where we remained until I graduated. 

Natick was one of the shortest of our domestic stays, but Everett was the longest. While I have some fond memories of that short time, Everett is where I grew up...and remember the best.