Who says you can't go back?

My mom certainly doesn't think so. Since everyone was in RI for my uncle's funeral, my brothers took my mom to see our old house. The house she raised 6 kids in. And that's it up there. My mom managed to finagle her way into the house, which is great.

It's amazing what a difference it makes to have money to spend on making it nice! With six kids, that certainly wasn't the case. It used to be red, with grass wherever it was strong enough to survive six kids running around on. The right front room used to be our playroom - a complete mess but a wonderful idea for six kids. One of my brothers went flying through the glass once, leading to a trip to the hospital. My old bedroom is now a bathroom, in keeping with the national trend to have bathrooms you can live in. The kitchen is modernized and beautiful, much different than when we were growing up. Did anyone else have wall-to-wall carpet in their kitchen? The basement is the same though, and little do the current owners know that there are items/time capsules hidden in the walls. I remember well playing red light green light on the porch, running around in the downstairs, throwing water balloons out the upstairs windows to try and get my brothers, sitting on the stairs on Christmas day waiting for the photo to be taken so we could go look under the tree...

Apparently it's going to be up for sale, and the house next door just sold for an unbelievably low amount. I could almost afford to buy my childhood home! I wouldn't mind living in RI at all. Of course, I'd never get the salary I have now, and I wouldn't want to live in a 3 bedroom/huge bathroom house by myself. But the thought that I could afford my old home makes me feel like a grownup. I'll ponder today whether I like that feeling or not - I'm all alone at work and so can blast my music and take time to write blog posts like this. It's nice to think about the old home and all the wonderful memories associated with it.