My Favorite Place




Part way through 2nd grade at Walter Reed Elementary in Arlington Va. in 1952--dad got a new job in Edgewater Maryland--and we moved from the red brick apts. called the Waldorf--and it was the most memorable move in my young life--I was moving to paradise!!!
First we went there to hunt for a house---and after I saw the place--I didn't care what we lived in--it was on the water--almost every house had a dock or a boathouse--Mom and dad narrowed it down to two houses--the first place was on the far side of the cove--2 story with knotty pine paneling throughout--fire places a basement--large guest room upstairs--with 10 beds for company----cots but--looked like a dorm---they said ya get a lot of company here.
There was a long boatdock and at the end of it was a cabin cruiser that came with the house----oh brother!!!PLEASE PLEASE-PLEASE---the parents liked it but felt it was a little steep--for them--and then we looked at the other house---------and behind curtain number two--our house in Paradise---
Let me describe this house--it was a single level house sitting on 2 1/2 acres--with huge trees--it was large--with hardwood floors throughout--and a massive porch across the front--and a basement--the innner walls close to the porch came down to allow seabreeze into bedroooms--the cove was across the st. and down the bottom of a dirt road--and there at the bottom was our own boat dock//let me rephrase that--our own Boathouse--it had stalls for two boats,under roof--it had picnic table on it--benches across the front and railings in the front for fishing--under roof-had a fish cleaning table---and the cove was fishing grounds central----the yard had a lattice work like tunnel that went in a L shape around a lot of the yard--and it had lillies of the valley growing all over the outside of it and every so often there was a benches area and little gazeebo for relaxing with your sweetheart------I just thought about fishin in those days--
There was a 6 foot tall privacy hedge across the entire front of the yard---and just to the side of the house was the most beautiful Scotch Pine tree you have ever seen--it was at least 85 feet tall--with giant pine cones and with thick needles that tree had you could sit under it in a rain storm and stay pretty dry.
My life was about to get a whole lot more interesting-----more later--The Codge