VINDICATION!

For years people have given me this look when I mention the lake/lakes in the neighborhood where I grew up, and at some point someone basically said "oh, honey, no, those were ponds." And I thought about it and it didn't really change how I thought about the memories, but I did wonder if maybe they were right and this was a case of something being one way because kids are small and everything seems bigger and if every kid calls it a lake, then it doesn't matter that the adults think they're ponds.

And yet it never sat right with me.

This morning Mums and I drove around that neighborhood and after watching an egret walk down the road down by Kate's old house, we drove back up one of the most traveled roads of my childhood. As we did, I noticed the signs that said "Lakes are for residents only." I snapped a terrible picture and we'll share later, probably, because I also took a few that reminded me of happier times, but yeah. The neighborhood itself called them lakes and lakes they shall be now and forever.



It is weird to see the little tiny area where the kids used to basically hang out keeps slowly shrinking each time we go by. I wonder if it's an intentional thing or just how things naturally change over time. Each time I worry the whole thing has gone away and then I look a little closer and realize that almost hiding spot is still holding on.

I also wonder if the neighborhood kids of any age hang out at the lakes. I don't really remember seeing any teenagers do so but you couldn't keep the 8-13 crowd away at various points in our lives. Again, this mostly predates computers/tech being super accessible so who knows. It also didn't hurt that when I lived there, there weren't a ton of kids, teens or otherwise, because it was mostly rich old white people.

That particular neighborhood had more than its fair share of clown decorations.

The night before we hit the other neighborhood (the one where Widget was born) and I've gotta say both of my old homes were seriously lacking in Halloween decorations. Boo, you losers. BOO.

Through my travels I have noticed a theme or two this year. Big, fuzzy spiders are very popular this year. So are witches crashing into things (truly an evergreen theme), inflatable ghosts going through windows (moreso in the richer neighborhood), and of course now I can't think of the other thing even though Mom and I were both noticing it a lot. *muse* Not the giant skellies, because we saw a few (only one in the richer neighborhood and we covered most of that one) or the covens of witches (though they did have decent rep and I still love them) and it must have been so ubiquitous that I didn't get a shot of any in the pictures I did take because nothing is calling out to me. Huh. There is a decided uptick in bats on the outside of houses though.

Oh! Floating witches hats! That's another thing. I think there's another one, but the witches hats were everywhere and we have a few, too.


I think my joking about an allergy to the sun has taken a turn for the itchy real, sadly. Do I wish to walk to the fancy part of the neighborhood even though I know what I'll find?

Do I wish to find the table and carve one of our two pumpkins and make seeds? Anyone got a good JOL stencil/template?