On Cory Lane

I grew up on Cory Lane in Boise, Idaho. I lived there from 1965 until I went away to college in 1975. We had a big two story five bedroom home with a barn, carport and a pasture with irrigation ditches.

There are times now when I go outside in the late evening to retrieve something from my car or take out the garbage and I look at the dark quiet street and the stars in the sky and it often reminds me of my teenage years when I stood outside at night on Cory Lane.

On Cory Lane

At night the sky hangs over us,

the stars quietly fill in the space.

The moon gazes down

and I am at peace.

During the day time I sometimes stand

before my second story window,

looking down the street.

But no one is there.

I sit in my room and listen

to my records.

I sing along, loudly.

In the summertime we go to

the neighbors garage,

and we get to play

the jukebox.

All the neighborhood kids are there

and we have fun.

Dad convinces me it's fun to help him in the garden,

I play in the irrigation water,

and pretend to waterski on the front lawn.

In the front and in the back

there stands a weeping willow tree.

Did you know you really can

grab a branch and swing from it?

Sometimes in the yard there might be a snake,

or the calf gets out of the pasture

and frightens us outside the living room window.

My dislike of catepillars is from Cory Lane.

They would hang from the apple tree

and drop down on you.

Big, fat fuzzy catepillars.

In the front yard was also a black walnut tree.

The walnuts would fall to the ground,

we would then have to pick them up

and place them in the driveway,

where the cars would run over them

and the outside layer

would fall away.

Revealing a hard black shell.

Mom would sit and crack them,

and then she would put them in her

homemade candy.

(I never learned to like the taste of them.)

We rode bikes, a lot.

And we wore beaded necklaces that we had made.

We wore t-shirts and levi's.

We liked A & W, Dairy Queen and McDonald's.

We liked girls camp.

And eventually we liked boys.

And dancing.

And then we grew up.

And I still like A&W, Dairy Queen and McDonald's,

one boy in particular

and dancing.