Bicknell Avenue

My brother sent me an email this morning. It was a little entry I wrote back in 1999. It still rings true today sometimes. Boy was I pretty good little writer back then.

I took a walk today. Ok, so most of you are probably asking
yourselves "big deal." Well, let me tell you a bit about it. I just
had to get away from it all. All the hustle, all the bustle that is
my life. Many things have gone through my mind this past while.
Just wondering where my life is going. What I have done to make it
so memorable. Where did I go you may ask...well, just to the local
Zellers. A very nice store. Well, I decided to go with my mom when
she told me she was going. I haven't spent too much time with my mom
since I was young. Anyways, we had a great walk there. Talked about
how I was doing in school and how my life was. However, on the way
back I decided to walk alone. I walked down my lonely street. The
street where I was raised. Almost 22 years on this little street and
I never realized just how beautiful it really was. I walked down
it. Looking at the sky in its evening glow. The beautiful sky..blue
with traces of clouds. Walking down the same street I had walked
down hundreds of times. This time however, something was different.
The reason it was different was.....I was growing up. I just
recently purchased my first car. Boy am I excited about getting it
out on the road. But that purchase also got me thinking....where did
the time go. Just yesterday I was a little boy still playing
playfully in the street. Today, a man. A man with many goals in my
life. Becoming someone someday. Maybe someday falling in love and
having some great kids of my own...on our little street, in a little
house. I can still remember my mother calling me "Peter, come home
it's getting dark." She would run down to the baseball diamond and
try to get me to come home. "One more inning" I'd cry out. "No
now!!" she'd yell. Walking down that street today made me think of
all the people I knew. The people who were so dear to me and how one
day....we just lost touch. Those who I lost came back to me. I
could feel them again. I could hear them again. "That was a nice
homer Pete" I could see them again. Those who left us way too
young. Those who I'll never forget. Seeing myself walking home all
sweaty after a great game of baseball. With guys I will love
forever. I memorized my steps. "Take care guys" I'd say. "Call
you tomorrow for another one." We never know what we have until we
lose it in the end. I know I won't be in this little city forever.
I must move on. However, I will never forget where I'm from and what
this street meant to me.