~If I count correctly I've lived in 21 different houses/apartments in 10 states and 2 countries. I've posted about some of my favorites before, but here are my top five locations:
1. New York City--The Kid and I lived in an apartment in NYC for three years. It was a seminary apartment in a nice location across the street from the Close (the campus) and we loved it. It was just the right size for the two of us, it was comfortable, it had big windows and good light and wood floors. More important it was in a neighborhood that felt like a community, and it was in the city, which I loved. At heart, I think I am an urban person. I loved walking or taking public transportation, loved sitting in the corner cafe and watching the world go by, loved the green market and the parks and the museums. Just loved it.
2. Vermont--I moved there with a two year old and two teenagers to take my first teaching job after grad school. I feel in love with the area when I went on my interview: it was in March, there had been a big snow storm just before I arrived, and my first day there was a crystal clear cold day--cold but bearable to be outside. Something about being there still soothes my soul, and although I have no regrets about leaving academia for the priesthood, I am sorry that we could not go back to Vermont after seminary (no jobs, alas...). I lived there for 8 years; both the girls graduated high school and WW graduated college there. Both girls live there (NSLS full time and WW part time) and it's as close to a "home" with roots as I have.
3. Iceland--Lived there for three years in the early seventies. Gave birth to my firstborn there. It felt like an adventure, and it was, in fact, my first real time away from home. It's a beautiful place and I'm grateful for my time there.
4.Roanoke, VA--the location of the best three years of my childhood. We lived in a big brick house in a comfortable but not fancy neighborhood with lots of kids. We kids had the run of the neighborhood and could walk to school, or to the local swimming pool or to the movies. Kids would congregate at our house on summer evenings or after sledding in the winter. My best friend lived just one street over, and her dad taught us to play poker on her front porch--the same porch where we had marathon Barbie sessions. It truly was the most idyllic part of my childhood.
5. Charleston SC--lived there for 8 years. We moved there when TFoMC was stationed there on a submarine. NSLS was born there, I returned to school there and graduated with honors. I grew up there (finally) in many ways, and left to go to grad school in a different southern state. For a long time I though I'd like to return there, but I think that despite my deep southern roots, my heart is in the northeast now.
6 comments:
i was in charleston 1984-8, and my husband was on a sub. son was born there. we probably knew some people in common; at least we could talk a long bit about the town and subs, probably with a good bit of laughter. it was a lovely town, but my home is on the opposite coast.
Kathy, I was there then...I left there fall of '87.
small world, isn't it?
so, you'll understand about the 30-word censored familygrams. stinky poopy-suits that must stay in the garage. spoleto, plantations, azaleas, islands, and kudzu. south of broad, west ashley, the "scary" bridge over the cooper, and the four corners of law. maybe oyster roasts, deep-fried turkey, grits, and/or hush-puppies. fun to think of these things again, 20 years later.
Yep--all of the above! Of course, I am Southern born and raised so some of those things go a long way back with me.
I did a double-take when I saw an ad in the NYT metro real estate section an advertisement for: 'Chelsea Enclave,' 177 Ninth Avenue. The whole thing makes me quake. Somehow having luxury apartments attached to a seminary, regardless that they bring in needed income, seems antithetical to the message a seminary should convey, particularly because between the 'Enclave' and the Tutu Center, the seminary will no longer look out on either -- I guess 20th street will become the main entrance?
Not sure if that is true, Caminante. The library will be on the first floor of the Ninth Ave Building, and maybe the bookstore. So there may be a street entrance to the close on Ninth Ave.
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