Updated 2/18 9:30 AM
Swayze Acres was, in retrospect, a small development, especially by modern standards. It was constrained in size by cemeteries to its north and south, a steep ravine to the east, and Middletown Road and farmland to the west. Without counting the houses in Google Earth with my 70 year old eyeballs, I'm going to say there were close to a hundred houses.
Swayze Acres was, in retrospect, a small development, especially by modern standards. It was constrained in size by cemeteries to its north and south, a steep ravine to the east, and Middletown Road and farmland to the west. Without counting the houses in Google Earth with my 70 year old eyeballs, I'm going to say there were close to a hundred houses.
They spread across six streets.
As kids, we couldn't be bothered calling the streets by their actual names. To us, it was the 1st street, the 2nd street, and the 3rd street. Close enough.
What did we care about addresses? We had no need. We also referred to houses by name, rather than numbers. Say "Take the path next to Miller's house" and everyone knew exactly where you meant. And where the path was and where it went. The only numbers I had need of were the ones I needed in school, like my own address and phone number.
The development grew from Middletown Road in, so the oldest homes were on the 1st street (Lea Avenue). The newest streets were the afterthoughts of Davis Drive and the Craig Avenue extension to the east. Unfortunately, we had to refer to Davis Drive as Davis Drive. We ignored the Craig Avenue extension and pretended it wasn't there. It was only a place during trick-or-treating.
There was a large field to the south of Swayze Acres owned by St. Mary's Cemetery. It was here that we kids spent much of our time either playing baseball on the one level spot, or sleigh riding on the hill in winter. St. Mary's was also the location of the much coveted St. Mary's dump, which I'll describe separately in future chapters because of its prominent status as a treasure trove. We found treasures there, and in another industrial dump which I will cover later.
Now, for argument's sake, let's round off the houses to 100. That would be 99 moms (one house, the Yaeger house, was vacant). A small handful worked. So although there were a few hundred of us kids, we had around 95 moms watching us. We had to work at getting away with things.
Love your point about street names. I recall that practice well.I also recall the Yaeger house well. I think maybe divorce-drive. That was only discussed in whispers at the time. We'd bicycle by the house and whisper to ourselves "What's the deal there?"
ReplyDelete