Bobby and I woke up and headed for Salem on Friday, March 6th. Krystal was spending the day with her wedding peeps and they were preparing for wedding crap.
Our first stop was actually to Needham, as my Great-Grandparents are buried there and every time I go to Boston I go by and “see” them. I do this for myself and also for my Grandparents who are too old to make the trip themselves.
So we make it to Needham using our trusty Google Maps and since I didn’t have the name of the cemetery I have to go off of memories. I know I need Webster Street. So I make a left on Webster off of Highland Avenue. Turns out (about 2 miles down) that I needed to actually make a right onto Webster from Highland Avenue. So I turn around and make my way back in the other direction, find Grandpa’s old house and make a left on Central Avenue. This is where things get fuzzy for me, so I called my Grandmother, whom I call Mammy.
“Mammy! I am on Central Avenue, is that the road I need to be on?!?”
“Humm, well let me see, BIIIILLLL!!!!!! (my Grandfather) Jess is on Central Avenue…is that the road she needs to be on?!?!”
[mumbling in the background]
“Jess, he doesn’t know.”
I want to pause a moment and let you people know that BOTH of my Grandparents grew up in this area. ALL OF THEIR LIVES! How do you NOT know the roads?!?
“Jess, did you see a stop sign and a fire station?!?”
“Well, yeah, somewhere back there, but do you remember the name of the road? Because I am on Central Avenue.”
“No, I don’t know the name of the road, but it is either the first or second right after you get on one of those roads.”
“Ok, so IF Central Avenue is where I am supposed to be, then the ACTUAL road the cemetery is on MAY be one of two roads on my right.”
“Yep.” [then laughs]
[Me mumbling curses at the lack of road-name knowledge]
Turns out it was the second right off of Central Avenue. If anyone is wondering, it is Cedar Road. So if you want to go and visit my Great Grandfather, please take a right off of Highland Road onto Webster, go approximately two miles and you will stop at a stop sign. This will be Central Avenue. Take a left on Central Ave and make your second right onto Cedar Road. The cemetery will be on your left.
So this is Great Grandpa and his second wife Agatha.
As you may or may not be able to see from the marker, Grandpa was 88 years old when he died. He also died almost one year to the day that Agatha passed away. He most certainly died of broken heart disease. Interestingly, he outlived his first wife as well.
Also of interest: when Agatha died (she had a heart attack while shoveling snow, very unexpected, died on the spot) the family had the hardest time finding out how old she really was. She had a high school diploma with an odd date, a high school ring with a different date and even her drivers license was an odd date. I believe they had to go into the city and do some hard core research to REALLY find out when she was born. Needless to say, Agatha had a “thing” about her age. Alas, she was 71 when she passed. Shows that Great Grandpa was quite the stud! 17 years older than her!! Sly fox!
Great Grandpa LOVED the snow, so I was particularly excited to see so much snow in the cemetery. It was beautiful. Grandpa used to get up at 3:00 in the morning just to be the first person outside to mess up the snow. He was a good man. I feel privileged to have known my great grandparents AND to have memories of them!
After that stop we headed to Salem. What a beautiful town! There isn’t much to say about Salem that isn’t already known: 200 witch accusations by two teenage girls, started a frenzy and 19 people were put to death. Burned, hanged or stoned to death. See, teenagers ARE nutty!
Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. The black and whites of the graveyard are my favorites.
We then made our way home.
Again, we got somewhat lost on the way out, asked directions and eventually made it back to the Interstate. HOWEVER, we AGAIN, were looking for Route 2A and there was no sign to be posted. So continued on I-95 South (which heads allllll the way back to Savannah) which then led us BACK to Needham, which is NOT the direction we needed to take. Once more we turn around, we find a sign that says Route 2A, we hop aboard, delighted that we FINALLY were able to find a sign! We continue on Route 2A, recognizing various things along the way, when suddenly we realize we are on Route 2 again!! We are still amiss as to how this happened. There were no signs that said Route 2A continues this way or Route 2 starts now. Nothing. We were just suddenly on Route 2.
No problem I say, lets just do what we did last night and take the Shirley/Shirley Road exit and we will be fine.
Seriously, I think New England is in the Twilight Zone. I take the same freakin exit and I swear to tiny baby unicorns, the exit was different. I took a left like I knew I should and the whole exit was different. I have NO idea what happened. Different stops signs, different intersection. It was weird. Don’t even know how to explain it.
We make an educated guess as to which direction we need to be taking, and end up in familiar territory once again. THANKFULLY.
Incidentally, during this time of lostness, I call Krystal, who lived in Ayer for 10 years of her life, and ask her if I am going the right direction. I give her the names of some cross roads, none of which she knows. So then she asks me, “Is the road a winding road?” Well, yes dear, every road up here is a winding road. She then yells out to the crowd of people she is with and they all give ten different sets of directions, so I just hung up. I also realize that they were drunk. HOWEVER, no matter how intoxicated I am, I can tell you where you are in the town I grew up in AND I can tell you how to get home. My directions come with road names AND landmarks.
Take a right at the strip club and take your first left onto John E. Walker…leads ya right home!!
So we get home from Salem and decide that we need to make a snowman. So we go grab some beer out of the fridge and make our way to our snowman building spot.
Perhaps slightly intoxicated, but never the less able to thrash out a bomb diggity snowman. Southern style.
And then I made a giant snowball and threw it on the ground. Why? Um, because it is FUN fartface!
