Thursday, July 16, 2009

My Hometown: Norwich is still alive and well

I knocked on a friend’s door when I visited my hometown last week but she wasn’t home, so I’m only guessing - my hometown seems to be surviving.


I always say I like to go back for a visit but I couldn’t live there.


The Lam family is still in business, there’s enough traffic to warrant a stoplight and I actually saw five or six cars at the intersection at one time - unheard of in my day, except after church or a funeral.


The Post Office tower (my friend, a talented artist, was its Post Mistress for many years) still remains, ringing out each hour as it did when I was a boy.

Once it rang 13 times at midnight and I said to my friends, “We’d better go home. It’s later than it’s ever been.” (They didn’t get the joke).

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Do you return on occasion to visit your hometown? How does that feel?

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2 comments:

Butch McLarty said...

I only lived in Norwich for about a year or so in the early 1960s, but I always feel a bit sad when I return there for some reason.

Lost youth I guess.

Plus good memories from visiting relatives etc., several of whom are now deceased.

Why couldn't you return there to live, Gord?

G. Harrison said...

Hi Butch,

Norwich held some appeal when my parents vacated their house on Washington Ave. at South Court, because the property was huge, the trees were magnificent and the old barn would have made quite the workshop.

I'm pretty sure I would have blended in well with the neighbours (two Harrison families within one block) but it was my hometown, not my wife's.

Also, at the time the family home went up for sale, I was still teaching and couldn't see myself enjoying the commute.

By the time the house was sold and lots severed I'd turned my old dirt-floor garage into a workshop and now as a retired guy I couldn't handle a move. Too much work.

I'll pass through a few more times this summer because it's a good ride (on the bike) and two uncles still enjoy a short chat.

Keep well,

Gord