Hey, yesterday made up for pokey Tuesday! Got down to pick Betty up for lunch and we went Chinese, then spent a pleasant hour at a new store in the shopping center in Ventnor Heights. Driving back to her place, we went down Rosborough Avenue and were surprised to see that 15 South is for sale.
Now this is the ancestral home, the place where Betty and I lived from babyhood to high school. It always seemed to me the perfect house for our family of six: big and airy, wrapped with a wide porch, and only a short block from the beach. Of course, when we were kids, you could see the ocean from our house, but the beach block has been filled with houses for years. We also had a big lawn on one side and an empty lot on the other. Now there are two houses on the former and one on the latter.
Anyway, I left Betty about 3:00 (we made a date for her and two friends to come to my house for lunch on Tuesday), but on the way home, stopped on Rosborough. I parked, looked around the front (still don't like the bright blue it was painted), then ventured quietly into the backyard. Suddenly, I heard from the basement window a sharp, "Who's there?"
Darn! I explained I used to live there and apologized for intruding. To my surprise, a woman around my age came to the door and asked me in. I went, she had me sit down at the kitchen table, and I stayed for another hour, talking and laughing with her--Dee Gentile.
I learned that Dee and her late husband had bought the house from his parents. She lives in Prospect Park, Pa., but stays in the downstairs apartment (we called it "the basement") when she comes down to Ventnor. We did the same when we rented to summer people.
A family of four, who are Dutch, now rent the upstairs. The husband is a dentist and just took a job as director of a dental practice in Vineland. While Dee and I were talking, the 8-year-old son wandered in (they have a 17-year-old, too), then his mother. I was charmed to hear her name is Scarlett, same as Betty's new little granddaughter. Dee and her tenants have a very close and loving relationship; I thought at first they were her daughter and grandsons.
Dee and Scarlett insisted I stay for coffee and S. made delicious cappuchino (?) while we continued our talk. I was thrilled to hear that Dee had had a new heating system put in and had found a note behind the old furnace. It was dated 1949, I think written by my father, and records the cost of the furnace: $300. Dee kept it and, after she gets back to Pennsy, said she'll send it to me! I was thrilled, of course. I mentioned that my brothers were coming next month and she said she'd be glad to show them and me around while they're here. That would be great fun and I e-mail Jim, Larry, and Frank about the offer.
Stayed about an hour and greatly enjoyed the little excursion. Called Betty when I got home to tell her about the Scarlett connection. What an unexpected fun day!