I’ll Take New England

#3...Our growing up years

The offer came in late fall, just before Thanksgiving; and just like that, we were settled in another house, sight-unseen, in time for Santa to deliver!

Jim and I were flown to Boston, picked up by a realtor and shown homes up and down the North Shore. A few we liked, but nothing grabbed us. We left it in the hands of Peter the real estate guy and went home to start packing. My husband had become editor of the Salem Evening News in Salem, Massachusetts and soon headed back alone to begin work.

I’m not sure if I took kids out of school or semester ended early in December. We found a family to take our pup Frisky. Jim sent photos and a contract by mail and suddenly we were owners of a huge old house on the edge of Ipswich. I loved it…the pool was the deal maker! I said, “yes, let’s do it!” I had visited Boston with my grandparents as a kid so, unlike my tearful reaction the year before, I was excited to move this time!

The back yard and pool still look the same today. Photo from Redfin Realty listings.

Move-in day was December 17th…I remember because it was the date in 1965 when he proposed again with the actual ring. Furniture in place, we bought a 10-foot tree and helped Santa with his gift list. What a Christmas that was with local tee shirts, beachy decor, board games, books about Boston and hockey gear for both kids.

House still looks the same in this Redfin Realty photo. It had lots of additions; guest suite on far left became our son’s room.

It was like a mansion, so big and stately amidst a wooded stretch of road. All good except the pool…it needed resurfacing and the pool house fixed up. That’s where our money went that first spring. What fun hosting outdoor parties as we met more and more friends. We planted gardens and cleared a path through the woods to visit the neighbors behind us…Tanqueray-and-tonic-with-double-lime people just like us.

Our boy loved his Puch mini bike, here with Sis on the back wearing dad’s old Jofa hockey helmet! He had the proper helmet and goggles but apparently, we skimped on riding boots and said use your old rain boots. Can’t believe we let our six and nine-year-olds zoom through the woods!

I had to ask my daughter’s kindergarten teacher for help in getting a few classmates to her sixth Birthday. Poor girl…she didn’t know any different; that birthday parties were usually with besties. By June I was offered a 2nd grade position for fall semester. Everything kept falling into place! I took occasional assignments at the paper. Found these clippings in an old scrapbook. You don’t need to read them…not bragging, just reassuring myself I did it!

Beginning of a Saturday column

I covered school board meetings, the Topsfield Fair and various events in the surrounding towns. At the fair, I let my kids run around on their own as the photographer and I interviewed fair goers and midway workers. Imagine my delight when I not only got on the front page…but above the masthead! Evidently citizens learning CPR was a newish thing in 1980…carried a lot of weight for this edition.

I taught fourth grade at a school across town and for one year, my kids and I were in the same building together. The principal encouraged me to get a Masters in school administration, so for eighteen months, I took evening classes twice a week. The following year, I taught reading and writing in the mornings, served as assistant principal in afternoons.

Learning to eat a whole lobster fresh out of the pot was interesting…a lifetime skill we didn’t know we needed! Joining the church soon found us serving as an altar boy, children’s choir member, Sunday school teacher and a lector. My parents came for holidays, friends came to see the sights of Salem and Boston. Tour guides were us. Eventually, the cost and time devoted to pool upkeep and maintaining a big house began wearing on us, so-we downsized!

We found a small home with the garage-turned-family-room, high up a hill on the other side of town, closer to my school and Newburyport hockey practices.

Again we moved in time for Christmas. Our beloved bookshelves Jim built at lake house moved with us each time. Witch is the logo for the Salem News.

A good move for our two; right next door to a same-age brother and sister. Because teaching, reporting and mothering weren’t busy enough…I volunteered to do a Brownie troop with another mom. The back of my station wagon was either filled with little girls once a week or sticks, skates and pads on weekends. Add hockey mom too. Dad and I took turns getting them to 5:30 AM practice every Saturday. I knew little about the game, but I was great at tying skates tight and manhandling them into jerseys over bulky padding.

Our house was close to the open field where bulldozers were preparing for new homes in the neighborhood. For two years we watched how roads and basements and homes are built. Mounds of dirt and newly dug holes for foundations lured every kid on the street. We let them play on construction sites!

The view from our window; a new home rising diagonally across from us.

We were hooked on watching the new development and talked ourselves into buying this one! More space and yard, a basement and garage! The kids were getting bigger, and we were ready for something brand new, where we could choose colors and details and save money finishing most of it ourselves.

With one in junior high and the other starting high school, the kids were all for it. It was a tri-level with master-on-main. The kids’ rooms upstairs were unfinished, but a mattress on the floor and card tables worked as we all chipped in nailing wallboard, painting, decorating. Hockey pals and workmates helped us cart our belongings across the street, literally pushing the fridge, sofa, washer etc. up the hill one by one. As my son helped remember details, he nonchalantly said, '“this is the house where I walked in on you and dad, wondering why you were wrestling under the sheets.” We had a good laugh, me thinking if it weren’t for Substack, I’d never have known this coming-of-age tidbit! 😅

Three homes in eight years in same town messed everyone’s address books up! We may have had some stature here, but the active, fun-loving, change-it-up, do-it-anyway Midwesterners were welcomed and applauded all over the north shore. Cranes Beach was three miles away…one of our favorite places. The whole school field tripped there every summer, with most of the male teachers certified as lifeguards.

We loved New England; learned so much during this time in our lives. The timeshare in Stowe, Vermont for skiing, Islesboro, Maine for getaways, Exeter, New Hampshire for soccer camps, Club Casino for Ray Orbison concerts, Lake Winnipesaukee for gathering with friends on long weekends. All these places were just a few hours’ drive from Ipswich. How lucky were we to live in this land of beginnings.

The train station downtown was handy; we could meet dad for lunch in Salem, wander along the wharf or take visitors to The House of Seven Gables…we were regulars there, no need for a guide; our two knew every nook and cranny of this 1668 historic building.

Sometimes we’d head into Boston, departing at Fanueil Hall for pizza and browsing the vendors in every aisle. Hop, skip and a jump to the Common for a duck boat ride, walk the freedom trail. This too became a ritual as the kids told their cousins about Paul Revere’s ride. Better than any history book when you’re standing on all the landmarks. For concerts and Red Sox games, Jim would drive in to meet us, have the car for getting home.

As he wrote in his last column, To Michigan and Kentucky we say thanks for the memories, to New England we say thanks for the opportunities…lessons to last a lifetime.

I’ve rambled on here, documenting our lives for the grandkids someday. If you’ve read this far, something must have resonated with you. Did you notice my strikeouts…oh how parenting has changed! We’d be in trouble today. Some of you are New Englanders… reach out please. Did I get it right?

Be well dear friends, be happy, be kind.

Joan 😊

Welcome to my newest subscribers and those I’ve just found and subscribe to!

Barbara Tien

Deanna Thomas

Mesa Fama

Susan Wittig Albert

mary g.

Beth Robinson

Petra Hernández

Poorna Bell

And to some of my favorites who were my first, my cheerleaders and encouragers…thank you!

Mary Roblyn

Marc Typo

Rona Maynard

Deborah T. Hewitt

Bryce Payne

AFFathers

Patricia Cusack

Diane K24

Liz Flaherty

And the two ladies who got me here, whom I’ve followed in newspapers, on Facebook and thought if they can do this, so can I!

Connie Schultz

and

Heather Cox Richardson

Grateful and appreciate you all. Much love!❤️