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dancerjodiI went for a brisk walk after work yesterday for about 40 minutes. I got home at around 4:30, it was still light out, and it wasn't as cool as I expected. One cool discovery was that there is a pocket inside of my warmer winter jacket that's just perfect for my ipod to safely sit in. The outside pockets zip shut, so there is no fear of me losing my keys or driver's license (I should probably take my cell phone too next time).
I learned a handful of interesting things on my walk. I kind of randomly wandered around, mostly in West Newton (Brian and I live near the city line). There are a good deal of runners, joggers, walkers (some with dogs) out at that time that seem to do the same random weaving thing in the grid of small, mostly quiet streets (we used to play kickball in the street back home, and a manhole cover was home base). What follows is what comes up in my head through my total random thought process sometimes (where I remember tons of old stupid facts that don't benefit me much in my daily life). Sorry for the typos, I'm being lazy and not doing spell check
The journey brought me past the back of the elementary school that I went to for 6 months when we first moved to Waltham, before I was enrolled at St. Patrick's. They have more playground equiptment there now, there was a lack of that back with I was at Whittimore, all that they had was one of those sea-horse on a spring things that you sat on and rocked back and forth with. One nook of the building is blocked off with a series of bars, but there was one that was bent *just* enough that the girls could squeeze in there. I remember a game of "boys chase the girls" when they were trying to catch us and kiss us - we were in 3rd grade (my nephew's age). Wow, we start young!
There is a house across the street from there that was a total dump that Brian and I almost pondered buying because it was "cheap" at $300k. Our realtor refused to show us the place, and photos online confirmed its poor state. The place eventually sold and it looks like they kept the front steps and knocked the rest down, building a massive new one (that just looks silly on the lot size - must have been a weird grandfathered thing in terms of zoning).
From there I walked over to High Street and turned right onto Cherry Street (passing Buckaroos, that weird restaurant that our next door neighbor is a waitress at), following it down to Derby. The service station on the corner doesn't sell gas anymore but they used to. It was the best price, best service, and they loved my Monte Carlo. There are a ton of tiny bungalo style homes in all brick that are the size of our first floor. I bet though, they'd go for 100k more than ours, because they are in Newton! One house had a dirt sidewalk in front and an odd kind of fence that looked like it was made of small tree trunks. I'm not sure why, but it reminded me of Weston Road in Wellesley, over near the Bates School (where we once lived). It smelled like it and everything!I passed a few huge old Victorians with plaques on the front stating when they were built (mid 1800s) that I've never noticed before, and I got a good idea of how we could refinish our back porch that's in dire need of some mending this spring. Seeing old homes reminds me that I'd like to track back the history of our own at some point, but I need to take the time off of work to hit city hall, the library, the registry of deeds.
Turning right onto Derby street I passed by the old Franklin School, where I used to ride my bike down to as a kid. We'd ride around in the parking lot, play on the wooden playground equiptment (back when people didn't really think about how the pressure treated wood could be bad for a kid) and I made note of the still old canopy, swing sets and other things on the left side of the building. There is a pretty good sized playing field there that I hadn't noticed before, and some pre-teen boys were sitting on their bikes, just talking on the field. Why is it that boys this age don't seem to ride bikes as much as they ride somewhere with then and then sit around with them? It was the same when I was a kid.
Further down Derby and I'd pass the house that http://www.davidstoupakis.com/ used to live in. There's still funky stuff in the yard (a gazebo, massive wrought iron/antique style lantern, a pretty and ornate balcony off one of the second floor rooms). For years they had a ladder laying on the side of the house with the construction they were doing. My Dad used to comment how it was a huge liability (if someone climbed up and then fell off) but Dave claimed that since it was on their property it wasn't. We used to talk about that sometimes at Bickfords.
I turned down Milo street, a particularly hilly one. I used to like going up and down it on rollerskates because the name reminded me of The Phantom Tollbooth (and I really LOVED) that book. I notice a cute tiny 2-family brick bungalo style with a historic 'built in' sign that reads 1940 - so young! There are a bunch of houses on this street built in exactly the same way, one of which has the brick in a very cool mixed color pattern. On the left side I notice a huge multi family that I remember having extensive fire damage as a kid (they've finally fixed it up, with all new siding). At the bottom I went left on Washington, right on Tolman, right on Robbins (just past a HS friend's house - I ran into her at the polls and she informed me she had moved back in with Mom and Dad) and passed the new condos that were put in after a massive old neighborhood tree was removed (it caused quite the neighborhood stir). The yard there still looks like total ass, the house is ugly and I miss that tree. Left on Newton and up a few more blocks and I was homeward bound. The condos here look fine because the buildings haven't changed structuraly on the outside.
Ramble, ramble
I learned a handful of interesting things on my walk. I kind of randomly wandered around, mostly in West Newton (Brian and I live near the city line). There are a good deal of runners, joggers, walkers (some with dogs) out at that time that seem to do the same random weaving thing in the grid of small, mostly quiet streets (we used to play kickball in the street back home, and a manhole cover was home base). What follows is what comes up in my head through my total random thought process sometimes (where I remember tons of old stupid facts that don't benefit me much in my daily life). Sorry for the typos, I'm being lazy and not doing spell check
The journey brought me past the back of the elementary school that I went to for 6 months when we first moved to Waltham, before I was enrolled at St. Patrick's. They have more playground equiptment there now, there was a lack of that back with I was at Whittimore, all that they had was one of those sea-horse on a spring things that you sat on and rocked back and forth with. One nook of the building is blocked off with a series of bars, but there was one that was bent *just* enough that the girls could squeeze in there. I remember a game of "boys chase the girls" when they were trying to catch us and kiss us - we were in 3rd grade (my nephew's age). Wow, we start young!
There is a house across the street from there that was a total dump that Brian and I almost pondered buying because it was "cheap" at $300k. Our realtor refused to show us the place, and photos online confirmed its poor state. The place eventually sold and it looks like they kept the front steps and knocked the rest down, building a massive new one (that just looks silly on the lot size - must have been a weird grandfathered thing in terms of zoning).
From there I walked over to High Street and turned right onto Cherry Street (passing Buckaroos, that weird restaurant that our next door neighbor is a waitress at), following it down to Derby. The service station on the corner doesn't sell gas anymore but they used to. It was the best price, best service, and they loved my Monte Carlo. There are a ton of tiny bungalo style homes in all brick that are the size of our first floor. I bet though, they'd go for 100k more than ours, because they are in Newton! One house had a dirt sidewalk in front and an odd kind of fence that looked like it was made of small tree trunks. I'm not sure why, but it reminded me of Weston Road in Wellesley, over near the Bates School (where we once lived). It smelled like it and everything!I passed a few huge old Victorians with plaques on the front stating when they were built (mid 1800s) that I've never noticed before, and I got a good idea of how we could refinish our back porch that's in dire need of some mending this spring. Seeing old homes reminds me that I'd like to track back the history of our own at some point, but I need to take the time off of work to hit city hall, the library, the registry of deeds.
Turning right onto Derby street I passed by the old Franklin School, where I used to ride my bike down to as a kid. We'd ride around in the parking lot, play on the wooden playground equiptment (back when people didn't really think about how the pressure treated wood could be bad for a kid) and I made note of the still old canopy, swing sets and other things on the left side of the building. There is a pretty good sized playing field there that I hadn't noticed before, and some pre-teen boys were sitting on their bikes, just talking on the field. Why is it that boys this age don't seem to ride bikes as much as they ride somewhere with then and then sit around with them? It was the same when I was a kid.
Further down Derby and I'd pass the house that http://www.davidstoupakis.com/ used to live in. There's still funky stuff in the yard (a gazebo, massive wrought iron/antique style lantern, a pretty and ornate balcony off one of the second floor rooms). For years they had a ladder laying on the side of the house with the construction they were doing. My Dad used to comment how it was a huge liability (if someone climbed up and then fell off) but Dave claimed that since it was on their property it wasn't. We used to talk about that sometimes at Bickfords.
I turned down Milo street, a particularly hilly one. I used to like going up and down it on rollerskates because the name reminded me of The Phantom Tollbooth (and I really LOVED) that book. I notice a cute tiny 2-family brick bungalo style with a historic 'built in' sign that reads 1940 - so young! There are a bunch of houses on this street built in exactly the same way, one of which has the brick in a very cool mixed color pattern. On the left side I notice a huge multi family that I remember having extensive fire damage as a kid (they've finally fixed it up, with all new siding). At the bottom I went left on Washington, right on Tolman, right on Robbins (just past a HS friend's house - I ran into her at the polls and she informed me she had moved back in with Mom and Dad) and passed the new condos that were put in after a massive old neighborhood tree was removed (it caused quite the neighborhood stir). The yard there still looks like total ass, the house is ugly and I miss that tree. Left on Newton and up a few more blocks and I was homeward bound. The condos here look fine because the buildings haven't changed structuraly on the outside.
Ramble, ramble
