Not sure why I found this picture ...

 I don't know why I did it. I found this photo on Google maps, streetview.  I get comfort from the photo of this old house in Sydney, Nova Scotia.  This is the home where my maternal grandparents lived -- Tina and Archie Maclean.  128 Cornishtown Road. It's the home where my mom grew up. It's the house where I have some of my earliest memories as a child. Several of my aunts, uncles and cousins lived nearby. When we came back to Canada after living in France for a few years, it's the first place my parents drove to when we got off the ship in Quebec City. 

I remember Gary and I jumping around in the back seat of our family station wagon as we headed down the highway to Cape Breton. I wasn't sure why we were so excited, but Gary kept saying we were going to where we were both born.  I remember arriving here and seeing Grandma and Archie coming out the front door to greet us. Ronald was still a toddler but I am pretty sure he picked up on the excitement from Gary and myself. 

I have great memories of being in the house that summer. Archie would come home from work at the steel mill and he always had cookies left over in his lunchbox for me. Gary and I used to go picking blueberries and picking rhubarb. One of those trees on the right side of the house was a cherry tree. We would collect the fruit and Grandma would bake pies for us. Many times, I would find Archie sitting in his rocking chair in the front porch, smoking a pipe. If I wanted to go to the store down the street to buy candy, he would reach into his pocket and give me a penny. 

Life was good eh?