Budlong Pool, Cranston, Rhode Island. The pool of my childhood memories. This is where Dad taught us Providence girls how to swim. We had it really good because we had a sweetheart of an Aunt living across the street who let us water rats run back and forth from the pool in between snacks. It was as if this pool were in her own backyard.
As I try to piece together the dates of our childhood adventures, it helps to have some cousins who also remember the fun and are willing to share the details. For me, born in 1962, I don't remember a time when playing at this pool was not an option. It was part of our summer fun before and during the time when Mom and Dad bought the beach house.
Mom was very close to her siblings back in the day. My Aunts and Uncles were surrogate parents to all of us kids. They treated us like their own. Our cousins on Mom's side of the family have always been some of my favorite people in the world. Some first cousins of mine were not too much younger than my Mom due to Mom being the youngest sibling of eight. I think that Janie and I were the youngest of the (local) first cousins, and we were treated pretty special by them all.
We had a lot of family parties when I was young, where all my Aunts would make their special recipes and just hang out for hours on end. They were all very tolerant of having so many kids around. We loved every minute of every visit.
So, for the timeline of life events, I was born in a tenement house in the Smith Hill section of Providence. My family lived on one floor, and my aunt, uncle, and three cousins lived on the second. I remember Mom always telling me that she dreamed of having a large white house with blue shutters, and in 1963, she had saved enough money to put a deposit on one.
I don't think Mom even asked permission from Dad when she wanted to make something happen. Dad pretty much handed his Fire Department check over to her each week, and not only did she make it stretch, but she also saved, so when she saw that bigger home that she wanted, she had the cash down payment to get it.
In 1963, we moved to the Elmhurst section of Providence into the home that I lived in from 1963 to 1975, and then from 1978 to 1988. We, the younger kids, called it our 'winter house,' and it was a much bigger house than the tenement. And, it was painted white with blue shutters.
To Janie and me, that was a home filled with incredible memories - some a little harrowing, but most were really good. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Siblings, Friends, and Friends of Friends. If those walls could talk 🙂