Long ago I Chistmassed in Maryland alone
 

I have no idea why - my Mom was there, and in the end every year there I wasn't alone at all. When I got done playing with my friends (around high school and well after midnight) I went home and Mom (a college grad) was there.

THE HOUSE (apartment, really) was different from "outside". It was a sanctuary.

And we watched movies, talked about books and art and science (not her area), and it was different than being outside the place. I was always strange in some ways. I liked AC/DC when they came out - but also the Boston Pops live fourth of july version of the 1812 overture... BOSTON captivated me.

Caught between two worlds, I have no idea why to this day.

She watched "Escape from New York" (the first one) with me, after she bought the cable offer, though I never thought much of television - preferring books. We talked about it too - she didn't understand much of it. The characters were too strange. I knew some of them though - I had seen many of them downtown.

In that she gave me a lot. She knew a fine book was a thing I treasured for the ideas in it... Consider that a play station had not been marketted yet, but other stuff had. I preferred to build bicycles (so I could travel) and speakers (so I had ROCK!).

We liked to drive around the maryland countryside, which it was affordable to do then.

I was split....

I knew what I liked, and knew what all the people my age liked. They were different.

I am left with bad habits, and great longings.......

Roads without end, learning new stuff, bottles of beer.

In going OUT - I went no where.

The more I stayed home it seems - the further I travelled. Funny about that....


Momma understood Christmas.

She gave me gifts that still remain

Hey Grey, long time no talk....I guess you must have found another job and you're still in TN, eh? If you want to work on RV's again, you know there's a batch of dealers up here, right? And the beer is still cold too!

beers always cold here man, lol

I still have relatives around Silver Springs - you familiar with Kemp Mill? I have an Aunt and Uncle within six blocks of the highrise.

I also lived in Glenmont for a while, I went to the old apartment complex in '01 just to look around and it was still the same. For a while I was in the highrise along Viers Mill road, I went out on some of my longest cycling trips from there on the bike paths in Rock Creek Park, down through the mall, and up the C&O canal towpath. Fun times, great trails, high speed - low drag!

Maryland is where I learned to lace up HOT touring rims for pennies, changing the bikes I had forever.

I rode those bike trails every year until I wiped out three times in a row from ice on the blacktop, then I'd quit for the winter.