Green Street to Moyer Road - the Sharon saga continues

The Adventures Continue - Green Street -

This is likely to be disappointing because, believe it or not, I don’t have many stories from Green Street.  I remember baby sitting Tracey and Todd somewhat regularly.  I also remember a picnic that was held in her side yard because it was a big side yard.  I believe it was around this time that Sharon’s first husband found the Lord.  That find caused a number of problems for them and eventually split them.  I am sure there were other reasons for their split, but I know that was one of them.  I believe that shortly after the split she sold the home on Green Street and moved to an apartment up outside of Boyertown right of Rt. 100.  

I know I visited there a couple times, not many, but I must have been 16 because I think I drove - but that is not necessarily true.  Most of my real memories come from her home on Moyer Road.  She had remarried by this time to Dave.  The house on Moyer Road was nice.  It was a 3 bedroom Goldie Locks and the three Bears kind of place.  Each bedroom got smaller.  The kitchen was actually small and as I recall I don’t know where they ate because there was not dining room.  An edition was built on, but maybe the dinning room edition was built and then they added another bedroom above the dinning room.  Most of my memories from Moyer Road came from after my parents moved to Florida an I moved in with Sharon.  

I became known as the “Basement Dweller.”  I got card board and made fake walls and then hung sheets over the cardboard to make my little room.  It offered me some privacy and gave me a cute little room.  I was able to have a bed and a small table and chairs from which to work.  The winters in the basement were quite nasty as it was VERY cold.  I had to burn a kerosene heater to keep warm over night.  They had also put a shower in the basement - in the laundry room though it was just a shower it helped with the fact that there was only one bathroom in the house.  

So my parents moved off to Florida and I moved into the basement as well as into my college dorm.  Sharon’s place was my home away from home - the place I went to when I needed to get away, do laundry, or get a good meal.  On breaks I generally spent my time at the house or would visit my parents- and most holidays I would end up in Florida.  

Once the new bedroom was made, Tracy moved into the downstairs master, Todd moved into his sister’s room and the spare room became a TV/Sewing room.  It was not long before it was a TV room.  There was a wicker chair in this room that faced the TV straight on - that was the optimal seat, and then there was  sofa and a small table for propping feet or putting food on.  Oddly, I ended up with that chair, which was Ada’s and is well over 30 years old.  It is still in use.  My fondest memories of the TV room included sharing the room with Todd - the master of the remote.  He would drive me freaking crazy switching channels constantly until he found something he liked.  At times it would upset me so much we would get into an argument about it.  It would turn out that Todd and I had quite a love/hate relationship - I suspect because at the time we were both terribly bull headed and because I was older, but he was bigger. but I digress.  Once Tracy married a very amazing man - Mike - she moved out and I was awarded the master bedroom and was not longer the “Basement Dweller.”  I know that this occurred while I was still at university.  

I learned quite a bit about life from Sharon, because she shared practically everything with me, despite our age differences.  It was funny to me, how over the years, someone who had been friends with my brother became so close with me.  I am not really sure what that was all about except that I did not have the greatest relationship with my parents, ok more my father than my mother - I am not sure if she felt the need to be that important adult in my life that maybe she didn’t have growing up and wanted to make sure I did.  It could explain why, to this day that has always been something I’ve wanted and actually do for young people.  I was privy to a lot of information about her children that, at the time they probably would not have been happy to hear about.  I never shared, always listened and tried to give my view as a 20 something.  Sharon was also - I believe even my father said this once - she was my confessor.  It was true.  At the time there was little she did not know about me.  She was source of great strength while I struggled to grow up, figure out who I was, and what I would become.  Navigating those years, as anyone knows, is quite difficult.  

In my final year of university, I was required to student teach.  Because I had to wait a semester before I could student teach, I lived full time at the house.  I was teaching bands everywhere, so I traveled extensively. It was nice to be home for a good meal.  I was provided a room on campus wth a couple friends for my student teaching, but it was a very small room and very cold.  Since my friends were not involved in education, they were able to stay up late and of course made a lot of noise.  I tied to make it work - they wanted me there and I wanted to be there, but it was just too much.  I decided to move back to Sharon’s and drive from Boyertown to Malvern - A drive that was - at the least an hour.  There were no slick roads in 1986.  One of the first days I had to go to school, I was in the upstairs shower, there was a knock on the door, the door opened and Sharon,announced, “Bill, I’m coming in.”  So there I was behind a shower curtain showering and on the other side was Sharon, my female cousin, going to the bathroom.  Needless to say this turn of events was a bit startling, even for me who was quite liberal in thought.  As it would turn out, this would be the only time during the day I could talk to her.  I left early for school and most evening by the time I returned she was in bed or out herself and then I was in bed.  My friends found it difficult to believe that we practiced this ritual daily and not only in the same way.  Sometimes it was she, who was in the shower, and I who was going to the bathroom.  That went on for several months.  

As this entry is already spiraling out of control - I will end it now - and return with more stories of Moyer Road.  What I remember most about Moyer Road - was that there were really some great times, times that I will forever cherish.