7 Glenmore Drive

The speed of things these days almost always astonishes me. It took me less than a minute to locate a photo of the house I lived in till age 5. I didn’t need to go back to my home town of Middletown. I only needed to look on Google Maps.

I have so few memories of this place. I know that it was decorated in wonderful 1950’s style. I still have a white marble coffee table (simple with slender, tapered legs) from that period. Much of the furniture went on to our next house....very modern, squarish and simple. I remember the floor-to-ceiling lamps (with 3 or 4 swiveling lights). I remember the white leather sofa. I covered the rear windows of my first-ever apartment in St. Louis with heavy curtains from this house at 7 Glenmore Drive. These curtains were inescapably 1950’s: dark brown (almost black) and covered with earth-colored vines, leaves and flowers.

I remember standing in the kitchen in this Middletown house, in front of the sink, which in turn was framed by a window allowing a view to the outside. A small portable radio was playing “You Ain’t Nothing But A Houndog” by Elvis Presley. I remember being mesmerized by this sound.

It is all much like a dream. I recall stories of a bulldog we had that was killed by strangers who put glass in its food. I remember stories of our German Shepherd named Baron who had to be given away when a neighborhood girl was bitten by a dog resembling Baron. I guess my parents could not prove his innocence. I remember playing with a girl next door who became a friend. She was a few years older and she may have been my first crush. Who knows?

It IS so much like a dream.