I Remember

* A Narrative List Poem in no special order *

 

1)  Halletts Drug store, the glass topped display tables, and certificates for free ice cream from the Dentist, a good checkup, and an older me in the new store scooping ice cream to fill a certificate given, redeemed, and all the free ice cream I could eat, then, in a 5-hour shift, Eddy True, and the sweeping skill I never mastered, push broom at the ready, to meet his inspection, his watchful eye, long gone now, Halletts, Mr. True, and Homemade/Hallett’s made ice cream, gone the way of time marching forward, onward,  coffee ice cream and chocolate sauce, French vanilla, ice cream sodas and a chocolate milk shake, gone now, a Cherry Coke on ice;

 

2) The First Baptist Church, much changed now, Washington and Elm streets, and the ancient hymns, The Old Rugged Cross, Bless Be the Ties that Bind, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Blessed Assurance, sung from the church hymnal in the family pew on the left side of the church, family and grandparents, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, Youth Group and PAX, a self formed group of guys from the church at Jay’s house, singing the songs we knew, Chuck at the piano, singing later, rebelliously, in the adult choir and ringing the Sunday morning church bell, benefits of growing up, sneaking up through the steeple clock to the cupola at the top, signing our names there, a great view of home, river town on the Kennebec, breaking the rules, a rule we sensed Jesus might have broken, just for the view, a curious teen, Jesus Himself, growing up in a Baptist church in a little town, changed but not too changed, same small community, growing, changing, but yet unchanged ;

 

3) All the schools I attended, still there, West Bath Elementary, No Pre-K, No Kindergarten for me, straight into the first grade, Mrs. DePalmer, and chocolate milk at morning break, air raid drills, and Carol Savage, love’s first stirrings, the long walk to school, me & siblings picking up Jack and Joan and Kenny and Jim, in reverse on the trip home, gone a year for 5th grade, a year in Massachusetts, a break from Bath schools, then home again and into Fisher School, Mr. Pond, the “ruler,” my flag football career ended by a bout of pneumonia, and the book he was reading aloud to us, never hearing the end, how the mystery was solved, and Bath Junior High, no middle school for us, first teen love, first teen kiss, a whole different education in itself, and the transition to Morse High, 1969, old friends and new, still friends, forever friends, girl friends, band and MOHIBA, the Pit and Prom … and graduation into the adult world, bidding youth goodbye, bittersweetness, leaving Bath and staying away, thirty years gone;

 

4) Downtown, the head shop and wavey waterbeds, the glass pipes I knew nothing about, then, Frosty’s donuts, Grants and Senters, JJ Newberry’s, and the trams for cash payments and change, a rickety track clattering, fascinating us, the town Clock bearing “Halletts Drug Store” emblazoned, still standing, still ticking off the minutes of life lived there, the “Y” and the library, first library card, and the bank, “my bank,” though never much money there for me, Povich’s Store, white bucks for band, scout uniforms, and the new Halletts on the corner, Front and Center Streets joining, Halletts Made Ice Cream and the Greyhound bus stop, not that I ever went anywhere, but to the water front and the Carlton Bridge crossing into Woolwich, over and back above the BIW, dreaming of far off places, Reid State Park and Popham Beach, the DQ, the Opera House--first movie? “Old Yellar--across from Gediman’s and the dry cleaners where Dad got his shirts pressed and folded and ready for church on Sunday, and the old barbershop, gone now, too, an outing with Dad, the smell of Barbasol, the stropping of a razor, and the sound of scissors cutting hair, the whine of clippers, and the conversations, the laughter of men on a Saturday morning;

 

5) And beyond, long bike rides to Phippsburg and Judy, Goddards Pond on a Saturday night, the Lovers’ Retreat Road paralleling the 8th fairway, tobogganing and the long dash down to and across the swamp, over and over, wet mittens and lost hats, lost loves, ice skating on Whiskeag Pond, holding hands and a long blue scarf trailing, Steve’s VW bug, a midnight trip to Richmond, - 70s “after Prom” - joy riding, band trips and band concerts, bus ride shenanigans, football games, basketball games, pep band, winning or not mattered then, our teams cheered on, home and away, away only to return as I do now, coming home just to remember, to relive once more those places tucked away into memory, that place I call home, the Kennebec River running through it, running through our veins, our remembrances, our very lives, the Kennebec River carrying us away and bringing us home again.