Memories of Halcyon: A Love Letter to My Childhood Home
''HALCYON Definition
A period of time in the past, that was happy and peaceful.
I’d like to tell a story about my HALCYON days. My parents bought this property five months before I was born. So I lived here all my life until I went off to college. Then soon after that, I married, but did not move too far.''
My early recollections are of being outside all the time playing in the spring, summer, and fall, and sledding in the winter time. We didn’t have air-conditioning so we played outside all day. And we were very creative when playing outside. We made tree forts on the ground, inside the pine trees. We had a playhouse that my Grandfather and my Dad and my Uncle built when I was five years old that still stands on the property today.
But we were always outside. I can remember one summer I had a cast on my leg for most of the summer which made the heat even that much more unbearable. My Dad bought one of those blowup pools, a very small blowup pool, so that my brother and sister could run through that pool and I could sit or stand and try to get some relief from the summer heat.''
View of the 7+ acres above
''Did I mention that we were always outside playing? Mom would pack us a picnic lunch most days. We had plenty of shade trees. And we played outside until dark catching lightning bugs. Later on when we grew older and had our own families, we were known for our very competitive wiffle ball games. And Sunday dinners.
Dad shopped, and Mom cooked every Sunday for our families. It became challenging when our children had games on Sundays. But Mom and Dad would cook Sunday dinner even when our children started to go off to college.
And holiday dinners. Mom and Dad did not like to delegate so all of our holiday dinners were here at Halcyon. I can remember when our older son went off to college nine hours away from home and his youngest cousin at that time age 4, couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t be coming home every Sunday for Sunday dinner.
And there were walks along the streams. One spring, I remember my then boyfriend now husband and I walking through the woods and we carved our initials on a certain tree. I think that I could find that tree today, but it would be very challenging for my knees!
Eating dinner outside on the picnic table was common and because we were blessed with large families on both my mother’s side and my father’s side, there were family reunions.''
''I had a June wedding which made for beautiful outdoor photos. I still remember that day, walking up the flagstone walk to the limousine that would take us to the church. My Dad and I both looked at each other and cried, knowing that our lives were changing that day."
The letter above was written by one of the homeowners about her childhood home.
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