Walt
Whitman and the Amityville Horror
Five
Years Ago Today ... an Abby’s Road
anniversary
September
30, 2009. The baby was due tomorrow. Of course, by now the baby’s delivery date
had been delayed and cancelled more times than a Jeff Beck concert, but we were
cautiously optimistic. As with our visit to Theodore Roosevelt’s home several
decades before (Esther insists it was only ten days), we ... well. I ... wanted
to get in some last bits of sight-seeing...
Starting at page 143:
“We
spotted the signs for Walt Whitman’s birthplace on our Sunday drive. It was
closed that day and Monday and Tuesday, so we went back on Wednesday. It had a
small museum but it was packed with information about a person of which I knew
very little. I read “Leaves of Grass” in high school. That was it.
His
father built the home over 200 years before (between 1810 and 1814) and Esther
and I enjoyed walking through it. It was just she, me and our tour guide. He
was a very nice gentleman who could not be budged from his rehearsed lectures.
He ignored some of my questions until we got to that part of his lecture.
We
had fun befuddling him, though. You could tell he was used to school children or
adults who were not raised as
lower-class mid-westerns.
He picked up a piece of wood.
"Can anyone guess what this is?" "A bootjack" said Esther.
"Umm, that's right... This?" He held
up a large metal cylinder with a rod in the middle.
"Fireplace rotisserie."
"Ummm, yes... “
...
***
"Also during our Sunday drive we
found Amityville. Yes, that Amityville. I was tickled. I am a horror fan
from way back. I wanted to go back and find … the house.
During the week I found out what I
could about “The Amityville Horror”. The
story generated a lot of controversy
in Amityville. The city itself wants nothing to do with the publicity and sides
with the debunkers. The city changed the address and the house was extensively
remodeled. Horror fans still found it – the back of the house still retains the
distinctive peaked roof.
Esther went with me and smiled at my
joy in finding the street. We drove it a few times until I was sure I had found
the house. I went to the next street around the estuary where I spotted the
dock, the boat house and peaked roof unchanged. I took photographs from the
car. I didn’t want to get out in case it annoyed the neighbors. If they were as
kind as other Long Islanders we met, I suspect they would let me take my few pics
as long as I left when I was done. I did.
Amityville is a lovely town! Lots of
boutiques and places to eat. When we go
back in years to come we’ll spend more time there to thank them for their
patience in letting a giddy horror fan snap some photographs from his car.”
***
“Abby’s
Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman
and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility
treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle)
humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding
wife.
Join
Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an
adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare
their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a
thousand miles from home.
Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532
Copyright
2014 Michael Curry
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