Posts Tagged ‘kids’

Since leaving for college, I haven’t been home to visit my parents as much as I’d like.  They still live in the same house on Staten Island that they’ve lived in for 28 years – an old Victorian with the biggest back yard on the block. On a visit home this weekend, I was struck by how connected I was – and still am – to that back yard.  It’s not just land to me, but it holds memories and lessons, and in many ways fundamentally shaped the person I’ve become. I was flipping through some old photo albums and found one particular page that brought the memories flooding back.  In her elementary school handwriting, with pink and green colored pencils, my sister wrote on a small sliver of paper,  “Johnnie’s GREEN thumb does it again!”  Next to the caption was a picture of me and my siblings cradling a