As I stepped outside my front door to face the hot, bright morning, something unusual happened. An elderly man I didn’t recognize was walking down the sidewalk, looked up at me, then immediately turned around and started up my driveway.

My innate fear of door-to-door solicitation and other awkward social situations kicked in, and I started calculating the likelihood that I’d be able to sprint to my car and get in before I’d have to talk to this guy.

Luckily, and against my better judgement, I stopped to ask, “Can I help you?”

“I used to live in this house,” he said.

“Really?”

“My family moved here in 1953, when I was a little boy.”

Okay, I thought, now you have my attention.

He went on to tell me that his family was the second one to live in the house. His father used to park his Studebaker in the basement garage. (This was surprising to me, because we don’t have a garage. Apparently it was filled in during the 1970s.) He went to school on Madison Street and has lived in the neighborhood his whole life.

One of the best neighborhood fun facts? During the summer, a traveling circus used to set up shop behind our house. Nowadays, it’s an apartment complex and shopping center, but in the 1950s, it was an open field.

I was late to work. Again. But at least I had a good story to tell.

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• neighborhood
• history
• frederick
• maryland