429 Sleepy Hollow Road

Most of my childhood years were spent here.
We moved from South Bend to Pittsburgh in 1972
I was 7
Elementary school,

middle school,

 high school and a bit more.
(lots of construction remodeling going on.  supposed to be done next year)

 

We moved to Houston Texas in 1984
My youngest is moving to Pittsburgh at the end of October.
I am very happy for her new adventure.
It is gonna be fantastic!
While exploring her new options one weekend,
I had the opportunity to visit my old stomping grounds.
Apparently Mt Lebanon was the ritzy area.
I never knew.
It was just home.
I had lunch with old friends.
Shared laughs with my brides maids.
Caught up on a bit of the past.
Looking forward to many visits and much reconnecting.

One thing I had always wanted to do was to visit my old home.
As I drove down the steep
(less steep than I remember)
hill towards my home,

I felt very nostalgic.
Memories flooded my mind and heart.
So very many memories!
It was a great childhood.
Silver spoon.
Perfect.
One I would wish on everyone.

I stopped the car in front of the Towns' home on the hill

across from the Anchors' home.

I walked to the street across from my house and took a few pictures.
The Shelly's house.

Both directions leading from my home.

The outside of my house and the side "porch" where we used to
break into the kitchen when we forgot our keys.

I decided I would take the chance and knock on the door to get
the new owner's permission to walk around the house
and take a few pictures.
The front step was still as high as I had remembered it.
As I waited for someone to answer,
I noticed that the small stained glass in the front door was the same.
It was the same front door that had been there almost 30 years ago!

A woman about my age opened the door. 
As I explained who I was, she invited me in.
She and her partner had bought the house almost three years earlier.
They had not completely furnished it,
 because they were saving up for what they wanted.
She said she was working from home today
and I was welcome to walk through the house
and take any pictures I wanted.
I think I shook her a bit because
I was sharing a lot of my memories right there in the entrance.
The red tile my dad had placed at the bottom of the steps,
memories of sliding down the stairs on sleepingbags and cardboard,

the piano room that is now a music room,

the passage my dad closed up between the livingroom and kitchen
that is now a pantry,

the "brick wall" in the family room,

 Ya, my Daddy built that opening too!

the view onto the deck,

the now gone greenhouse we built right before moving,
playing hide and seek in the cupboard at the top of the stairs.

As she sat at the diningroom table I made my way through the house.

The blue fireplace was now white.

The kitchen is about the same size, but that's about it.

Everything else was pretty close to my memories.
As I went upstairs, I took pictures of my sister's room,

my room with the attic entrance in the closet

the bathroom with the same ugly tile on the floor,

even my parent's room with the built in closet my dad made for my mom
as a gift one year.

Yes, I even opened the tiny closet in their room that was always magical somehow.

I walked around the house and took pictures.

 I remember paving this with my dad many times!

 Where the greenhouse used to be.

How did we ever scale that wall onto the deck and down again? 
We sure forgot our keys a lot of the time!
It looked the same except for the bushes beside the drive were gone.
Memories of the Hayden family and all the fun times playing came back.

I'm so very glad that I stopped to knock and ask a favor.
It was worth it.
Thank you Mommy and Daddy for such a great childhood home.