NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR TRADITIONS REVIVED
12月
14日
We're Making History!!
December, 1973, neighborhood children got together and went caroling, finishing with hot chocolate and marshmallows at our house. In the past 40 years those traditions got lost.
This past summer, the first time in my memory from those early days, Ray hosted a gathering on his deck as the Covid-Restrictions eased in 2021. Over a dozen of us gathered with Canadian, Prussian, Japanese, German, Jewish, French, Irish, Korean heritages. Ray's next door neighbors are an elderly Korean couple who were very quiet. Then, as we were all leaving, someone talked the husband into sitting at Ray's grand piano. All of our mouths flew open and our eyes became saucers as we heard his operatic Pavarotti voice ring out a rendition!
Sam and my grown up first grader moved back to our house with her two daughters Christmas Eve 2019. Remembering the old times, she invited the neighbors to a second gathering, December 2021, with the girls lighting up our house with seasonal decor. As we enjoyed stuffed peppers, brownies and cheese & crackers, Ray told us about his Foreman grandparents from Alberta, Canada. They built the first house on our hill, around 1935, on Maker street. Ray's mother, Robin Foreman, and father built the second house and we were one of the last of the dozen or more houses on this Foreman property. Robin was also on the committees for the development of the Mercer Island Beach Club and the Mercer Island Library.
I couldn't help but give Ray a bad time by recalling our first encounter with him as a middle school student in 1973. He and his neighbor friend, Andrew, took advantage of the lumber delivered for the building of our house. My husband, Sam, noticed the building of a crude hide-away, similar to the ones Sam had built himself as a kid, in the empty lot below our lot. Assured the lumber was borrowed from our stash, Sam talked the boys into admitting it and bringing the pieces back :-)
Now with the new set of school agers on the hill, they are creating new memories as they gather each morning on West Mercer Way for the yellow school bus. And plans are to do some caroling with Hot Chocolate with marshmallows and Strawberry Santas at the end.
