the First House

I was born in Bangor, Maine. One of the bigger cities in Maine. I'd lived in the area until I was 8 years old, when my parents, my younger brother and I moved to Berlin, NH, where my parents both grew up. I remember various things about the first 8 years. I don't remember the first apartment, and then trailer park my parents lived in during my first couple years.

I do remember their first house, right in Bangor. It was a small bungalow, with one bedroom on the second floor for my parents, and my small bedroom just off the kitchen and  dining room on the first floor. We had a small back yard, and a patio my father and friends built. A nice front porch. Brown paint with white trim.

The street we lived on intersected the street Stephen King's house is on. My parents told me I was too afraid to go to his house on Halloween, this being the very early 80's and Mr. King not being as super famous as he is today. Not sure if he still does this, but back then he would put on a grand Halloween decoration scene at his house.

A couple houses down and across from us my friend Aaron lived with his family. Pretty much the quintessential childhood best friend. My parents have pictures of us together during Halloween and birthday parties.

Next door to us was a blue house where an old widow lived. Mrs. Moore was a very nice lady. With my grandparents all about a 3-4 hour drive away, it was like having a surrogate grandmother right next door. She'd occasionally babysit me. And I was always welcome to visit her. She'd let me play on her exercise bike, would tell me stories about when she was younger and about her husband, and she always had cranberry juice just for me. I still have a quilt she made me.

We moved just prior to when I started Kindergarten. My brother was born in May of that year, and that little bungalow of a house wouldn't do for the bigger family. So my parents moved us to a huge log home in a nearby rural town. New friends were made, new adventures. Good times.

Recently I visited the old house in Bangor. I'd gone to a concert with a friend in Bangor the night before, and stayed at the place she, her husband and kids lived in nearby Winterport, their first house. The next day I decided to check it out.

Thanks to the technology of Google Maps, I was able to get a first hand street view look of the place before I left for my trip. I pull over on my motorcycle, and there it is. Same paint scheme and everything. Even Mrs. Moore's house was the same blue color. Now I felt weird. I'm a big burly guy showing up on a motorcycle taking random pics of a couple different houses with my cell phone. I kept expecting people to poke their heads out the window to give me weird looks. I didn't check out much more of the Bangor area, but thought it was pretty cool to ride around before the long ride back home.

Kindergarten is starting this week for a lot of new students. And I wonder about the little one that used to live here, herself starting kindergarten in Rhode Island. I still miss the kiddo, and wonder if she'll remember this house.

certificate

This morning in our Aikido class, my fellow Aikidoka Jeff and I were presented with our certificates for completing 5th Kyu in Aikido, from the headquaters of our small school and the Baltimore Aikido school... in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i... really, that's how they spell it. Neat. It's kinda nice to have the certificate. Even bought a frame for it. It will sit in my basement next to my framed Third Dan in Ninpo Chuan Fa and black belt.

Aikido rankings go from 6th Kyu (beginner) to 1st Kyu, with students wearing a white belt with their gi. After 1st Kyu, we'll test of 1st Dan (1st degree Black Belt), after that, it's black belts and Hakamas, which are black skirt-like pants that the samurai used to wear. My good friend Leane and I refer to them as the "fancy pants".

I'm really enjoying the class right now. Fellow student Jeff is an athletic guy in his 40's with a black belt in Kenpo. With just the two of us, it's kind of like private lessons with Jack Henry, our sensei. We've really been moving along in our studies, although Jeff and I both get tripped up in certain moves and how we try to not resort to old moves we know from the other styles we're trained in.

Lately I've taken some steps on behalf  and at the request of Jack Sensei to set up a Facebook page for our group. I've gotten some friends to "like" the page. Also put up a few flyers for the school around the area. Jack is hoping we could get at least a few more people to round out the class. He started teaching Aikido at a health club in North Conway in February this year, there have been a few headaches with the club, such as having to switch rooms and mats around every class, and some overlap of other classes there. That'll be coming to an end, as the program is being moved to Conway at a local Yoga studio next month. Maybe we'll have a few less headaches with that.