Some time to blog this morning. Long, long overdue.
I'm wearing a Framingham State University tee shirt this morning. It's a fairly cheap, nondescript grey shirt that I picked up at Stop & Shop two years ago, the day before my brother Tom died. I had traveled north to take the day shift at the hospice facility, and realizing that Tom was falling fast and an overnight was probably in order, I stopped to pick up a tee-shirt to sleep in. It's gone into regular rotation these days, and I think of Tom when I wear it.
Framingham, MA is home / not-home for me. My fond hometown is York, PA - with the house & church & school & swim club & neighborhood of my youth. It looms magically in my memory, although when I've visited in later years seemed so much smaller and more parochial.
When dad lost his job at McCrory Corporation in the early-70's, and found a job at Zayre Corporation, the Russell family moved to New England, and found a home in Framingham. We moved in the summer of 1975, perfectly timed (for me) to enter high school. Not so perfect for my sister Kathy who lost out on 8th grade at St. Joseph's in York, where the 8th graders were kings and queens.
I only really lived in Framingham for a handful of years. Four years of high school. Then summer / holidays as I took up college residence in nearby Worcester. Upon graduation, I moved to CT where I have lived ever since (Bristol, Southington, Danbury, Waterbury, Hartford, and New Britain).
And yet Framingham has been home. Mom was able to stay in the family home for many years after Dad died, so that's where we gathered. When my brothers fledged, she sold the home ($180K, Zillow says it's worth $510K today), but stayed in Framingham, buying a condo in Nobscot that became our family home base. Tom lived with me in CT for a few years, then headed back to a tiny apartment in Framingham, he never quite found his way out of there. Kevin owned a nice home with a pool near the family home, then bought mom's condo when she moved to assisted living - he still lives there. Kathy has homes all over (the Cape, VT, Florida). But I guess in some ways Framingham is still ground zero.
There are odd little places anchoring me to the town. I worked at the McDonald's on Rte. 30 through high school and college (and had dreams about forgetting to pick up a check or forgetting to report for a shift for decades after). It's still there but not recognizable after multiple renovations. A lot of my social life came through there - vacations, bowling, tennis, softball. Crew picnics at Hopkinton State Park where we'd cook all that McD food on an open grill (it was pretty good).
I spent many hours in the darkness of the Fun n' Games arcade (also still there, also much changed), ate solitary meals at The Taco Maker (a knock off Taco Bell, I still fondly remember the enchilada combo), rambled through the old Shopper's World (we'd ride bikes down, before I was driving). The General Cinema multiplex (when 4 theaters in one location was a lot). The second run "Flick" theater where you'd see artsy films (Tom worked there for many years, I remember the white short and black bow tie).
Some bar along Rte 9 (can't remember the name) where Mom took me for a drink when I turned 18 (I could drink legally for a few months then they raised the drinking age), probably en route from the hospital to visit Dad who died a month or two later. Later on, drinking with friends in the same bar, we played Bob Seger's "Horizontal Bop" over and over on the jukebox just to be shits, laughing uproariously.
My alma mater, Marian High School, now closed. Bowditch Field (watching high school football games, one laughable season on the track team). The Framingham Centre Library, an oddly designed and wholly impractical structure (much like much of the 70s) located on the road between school and home. We'd walk to the library, hang with friends, do homework (or not) and wait for a ride home.
I'm not really going anywhere with this, I guess. Just remembering. Crying a little. Doing that a lot these days.
