More Musings on my Hometown...

It is true. I am a Patchogian. Something about this town, this place has kept me here. It is home. I have pride in the history of this place. I was born right here and lived most of my life here. I used to think it was a Long Island thing, but now, with the wisdom that comes with years of experience, I know it is a Patchogue thing.
I enjoy the fact that I talk to my kids about growing up here. I love the fact that I grew up in a neighborhood. I think it is wonderful that I am still friends, with the girl that I have known since I was born. We grew up across the street from one another and still live no more than a mile away from each other. It is a great thing that we are on the "Emergency Contact" lists for our children's schools.
I miss Sweezy's, for housewares, baby gifts, for the creak of the floors in the building on the Four Corners. Heck, I miss the Four Corners. (That is another story though) I used to love Sunday "window shopping" with my friends...... way back when, stores weren't open on Sundays.
I miss the old Finast Supermarket on the corner of Phyllis Drive and East Main Street, the Plaza Theater, with its Art deco lobby, chrome, brass, and marble floors, etched glass and all. I hate to see it in the ruined state it stands in now.
I couldn't tell you how many movies we saw there as kids and teens.
I try to show my kids the landmarks. The old library, it's move from Lake Street to Main Street, occupying the old Grant's Store, Reese's Pub, THe Brickhouse Brewery, telling them the origins of the buildings. I walk the L Dock, oh, excuse me, "The Mascot Dock," in winter and spring. I love Shorefront Park. St Joseph's College, the old Seton Hall, I try to have the kids picture it as it was. I talk about the Lace Mill, in its heyday and in its state of ruin, before Sweezy's built the new building. I still call Rt 112, Medford Avenue. I call Main Street, "The VIllage." I explain that if we wanted to go ice skating, we went to "the cove" at Lakewood Street. If we went to the CIty, (Manhattan) we took the train from Patchogue Station, changed at Jamaica, (not Babylon, as it is now) and then on to fun and adventure. The Junior High(oops, Middle School) that they attended (Saxton) was the High School. My sisters graduated from there, my brother in law played football there.........that their Grandmother (my husband's Mom) graduated from there too. I show them the places where the Sunrise Highway used to have traffic lights, not service roads. I tell them the stories that a "day trip" to Patchogue, from points East, was a big deal. It meant that you were going for supplies and school clothes that couldn't be made at home. Patchogue was THE place to get anything that you needed, wanted or could imagine.
I want them to know what was in the town where they grew up. I want to instill pride in them for where they lived their childhood. No matter where they wind up, no matter what road takes them near or far from this place, I want them to know it was a great place, a good place, an historic place, that it was home.
I want them to feel that they come from a place that is not blackened by blight and empty stores. The reputation of our town has suffered in recent years and that saddens me, it frightens me that as a community we have a cloud hanging over our heads, that my children may be looked at in dispairaging ways because of where they come from. They come from a place with good history too They should be grounded in this place and know that it was a good place to call "HOME."