I found my family!!!!!

I am so stoked right now, I can barely sit still enough to type.

I just finally, after searching the 'net for so long, found the family I grew up with back in Alloway, NJ.

Well, actually... I found Drew's number back right before Christmas. It just took me this long to work up the cajones to call it.
Glad I did, though...

He was the first one I found and I called the number I found for him and spoke to his wife, first. She gave me most everybody else's numbers and I also got to talk to Brian.
Now, I'm dying to hear Keith's, Andree's and Michelle's voices again after about 30 years!

Guess it would help if y'all knew what da hell I'm goin' on about, huh?

Well, okay. But, I'm gonna keep it brief for now. I have way too much that wants to come out to be able to get it all out right this second, but I can most definitely give ya the basics, so at least you'll all see how utterly cool this is...

Back when I was a kid (and no, not yesterday... *grin*), I used to live at the beginning of a long driveway. Behind our house was another HUGE house, the "mansion" I always called it. The family that lived there just about raised me, for all intents and purposes. I swear I spent more time there than I did at my own house.

There were six kids. Mark, Brian, Drew, Andree, Keith and Michelle. They had six dogs... Blaze, Dutchess, Elkie, Martha, Barney and Precious. There was a nutjob rooster, Peter Rasputin, a horse Shar, a cat whose name escapes me, but the cat, I do remember, spent a lot of time on top of the fridge.

The house was huge. It had about 15 rooms, including the mudroom and laundry room. There was the kitchen, the dining room, the piano room, the den, upstairs were three bedrooms and a play room and upstairs again, the attic, which had a coupla rooms in it, if I remember it correctly. We didn't go up there much. That was the "big boys" rooms. The big boys were Mark, Brian and Drew. They were a bit older than me, so I didn't hang out (read: bug them) up there too often, but I do remember seeing it a few times.
There were at least four bathrooms in that house. More fireplaces than my brain will give me right now.

I can remember the kitchen table, where I was fed more times than there are numbers to count it. I remember being in the den on Saturday mornings, watching cartoons... Josie and the Pussycats was one of 'em.

I can remember playing "Born Free" on the piano. There were French doors in that room that led out onto a patio where we'd have breakfast sometimes.

There was a lake at the bottom of the hill. We'd "take a dip" in there ALL the time. I can also remember watching Keith flying down that hill on his bike straight into the lake. (Keith was crazy... *lol*) He did that a LOT.

I remember "Mom's" scrambled eggs. No one has ever made them better than she did.

These people gave me a second home. In many ways, a better home than I had "at home". With Dad being gone all the time working and whatnot and just my insane mother being at my house, I spent every minute I could with the Buckleys.

I have mentioned these wonderful people before. It was their house I was going to the night my Dad collapsed and was taken away in an ambulance for what felt like 10 years.

There is more, oh, so much more. They were the first 10 or so years of my life and I've never forgotten one bit in the passing years.
Finding them again is such a gift.

Okay.
Eric just came in and now we need to go "do" our horses right quick. Then, I hafta come back here and clean the hell outta this house, because a guy we used to work with back in Bucks, Shlavik, is coming over tomorrow.
Haven't seen him since September.
(Anybody wanna try to guess how badly I wish it were every single Buckley comin'? *grin*)
Besides, I did say I was gonna keep this brief. (Well, this IS "brief" for me, ain't it?)

Back soon.
Peace y'all...

Posted by: Stevie at 06:01 PM

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Posted by: Tuning Spork at January 09, 2006 10:07 PM (CmmFP)

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