I’m having a weird Binghamton thing.
First, I should note that I’m writing this on September 24. I shall have attended my Binghamton Central High School reunion on Saturday, September 26. (Grammarly does NOT like future perfect tense.) So I likely wouldn’t have had a chance to write anything over the weekend.
And September 26 would have been the 100th birthday of my father, Leslie Harold Green, who was born and raised in Binghamton and attended BCHS in the early 1940s. As far as I know, he never graduated but later received his GED. He did all right for himself.
What really fascinated me was the Zillow notice that 5 Gaines Street in Binghamton, where I grew up, has been for sale only since the 22nd. Let’s see: “new vinyl siding.” That’s true. When I grew up, it was green asbestos. Later, it was brown, not particularly well painted. “The first-floor unit features 3 bedrooms.” There were really only two when I grew up, but they might have reconfigured the space.
How is it BIGGER?
Speaking of space: you know the cliché that your home seems smaller as you grow up? Well, based on the photos, it looks somehow larger. Even the backyard, which was a postage stamp, seems bigger. The only thing that is appreciably smaller is the front door, which used to be thick and heavy.
Ah, the stairs going from the first to the second floor used to be carpeted. I fell from the second floor to the first after visiting my paternal grandparents, who lived upstairs. I still have a scar under my lower lip.
A small part of me wanted to bug the real agent for a tour, but I’m loath to waste their time.
Kelly posted Autumn Leaves by Nat King Cole, my mother’s absolutely favorite singer, on September 24, and I got oddly weepy.
Anyway, I’m finding the synchronicity just a tad… disconcerting, as though the universe is trying to tell me something about my hometown that I am not discerning.
How this played out is just plain weird. (TBC)
