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| Lambertville free bidge |
Ciao Lambertville
Readers
of this fickle travel blog of questionable validity may have had their interest
fade completely away by now. It has been quite a long time since I’ve entered
anything of note or have even explored the possibility of being cheap in the
name of fun. Not even dubious “destinations”, like having a beer at the pub at
Wegman’s or going to Karaoke night at the Limerick Diner, have been scribbled
on this waste of 0’s and 1’s.
“Why,
Why, Why?”, you may ask, although I know you won’t....
Well in
the long run there is good reason, though in the short term it has been chaos.
Your lovable cheapskates have conjoined their lives. I have sold my house of 18
years on Music Mountain in Lambertville, NJ and moved in with the true captain
of Team VFH, Janet. Yes. It is true. Not only are we a couple, but we are
roommates. I have left Lambertville, a lovely river town on the Delaware River
in New Jersey and settled into Collegeville, PA…. the home of the Bears of
Ursinus College.
“Why,
Why, Why?,” I have been asking myself.
Well.
For starters love is involved. Money as well, as in, ‘two can live as cheaply
as one’. “Love” may be the driving force of this sea change of life, but toss
in the money aspect and it makes sense. We have been a team for 11 years now
and the only benefit lost from this move to Collegeville is I no longer have a
place to park during Shad Fest in Lambertville…which happens to be this
weekend. Although Shad Fest is incredibly more alluring than Karaoke Nights at
the Limerick Diner, living apart from Janet had become a too lonely affair.
MUSIC MOUNTAIN
I had
lived in Lambertville for 28 years, the first 10 in a solid stone twin
constructed in1860 and across Clinton Street from the feeder canal, and the
last up on the hill named for the tent venue that had musical acts. Long, long
ago when I announced to the Sinatra crew and orchestra that I was moving to
this little town called Lambertville many said they had played at some kind of
tent venue there.
IF YOU’RE THINKING OF LIVING HERE
The
tent and the music were gone by the time I arrived with my little family in
1989, and the grit and decay that was sadly a prevalent part of the city were
slowly dissipating. We bought in Lambertville at a very good time and soon
after the only city in Hunterdon County New Jersey was an extremely viable
place to live and to visit. A few years after we moved into 126 Clinton Street,
on the corner of Buttonwood, I was astounded to read an article in the New York
Times Real Estate section, “If you’re
thinking of living in…” about
Lambertville.
Yeah, the city was a place for day trippers from New York and
Philadelphia and for people like us who appreciated the rural quality of a
place you could still walk and get a newspaper.
Yeah,
more than once I remember conversations with friends and neighbors about
Lambertville that WE LIVE in a popular tourist destination.
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| Canal side bar Lambertville Station |
Once
when I had family from England come to visit, the entire experience of leaving
the car unlocked, strolling through the quiet streets or along the canal, stopping for a drink at the outdoor bar at the Lambertville Station and then visiting my
house on the hill had them saying “DON’T SELL”.
MOVING FORWARD
Yeah, I could go on and on and on about the joys of Lambertville, about the sophisticated bars and restaurants, about how everything just seems right there. It is a great place to raise children. There's art and music and antiques too. It's close to everything and yet far enough away to feel like you've left it all behind.
Sigh..
Like
anything in life change can be exhilarating or painful or cathartic. In
preparing for this next step in our conjoined existence there has been a
revolving combination of these emotions. Having to let go… of things… of
experiences… of embittered embedded hatreds… in order to prep my house for the
market and to get rid of all the unnecessary things has been a lengthy time-consuming
process. Twenty eight years is a long time and I've always been one to ponder my next move rather than diving madly into the process....
So I have not been lazy my fair and noble readers, nor have I been idle.
As I
have finally returned to you, reporting now from my townhouse garret in this
little town on the banks of the Perkiomen River, I hope you’ll again find great
pleasure in following our antics on Vacations From Home even if we get thrown out of Karaoke Night at the Limerick Diner for heckling.
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