The outside of our house in Moncton was quite different too.We had a backyard to play in,rather than a driveway and a barnyard,and there was a house between us and the street out front,which was not nearly as busy as the road that passed in the front of our previous house.There was no pen at the side of the house either because,I suppose my sister had grown some and my mother did not fear so much that she would end up running out into the street.We could play in the front yard if we wanted to,but mostly we were encouraged to spend our days in the back yard.Around the side of our house,between our house and Mr.Cormier's house,it was shady and very pleasant when the weather was hot.In the back yard it would stay sunny for most of the morning,then become shady as the sun passed into the front yard later in the day.
At first I don't recall much about the surrounding streets and houses.But later,our neighborhood,which was still being built grew to have a lot of activity.I discovered,though,at some point that there were children living just behind our back yard.Most of those children were girls,and most were much older than my sister and I.There were two children ,though,who looked exactly alike,so that I could not tell the difference between the two.My mother said they were twins.I'd never seen twins before.Well,not really.The Mormon children that lived up the road in Redmondville looked very much one like the other and it was often hard to tell them apart even though they were of different ages.But these twins looked so much like one another that I never could tell which was which.
I never seemed to notice what went on in the one house beside us.That's where the Clarks lived.There were a few trees and bushes between our house,and our back yard really opened up the other way,so it was much easier to see into the Cormier's yard.Neither neighbor had children our own age,so seeing or going into their yard was not something we did much.Mr.Cormier would come out and work in his garden a lot.When the weather was warm he was almost always outside,when he wasn't working.He was a strong,sturdy looking man with square shoulders and slightly curly hair that was already beginning to turn grey.To use my fathers words,he was "built like a brick shithouse."Both he and his wife worked out in the yard when the weather was good.Although my parents got along well with the Cormiers,and,for that matter all the neighbors,they didn't seem to talk a lot.I can only ever recall Mr.Cormier ever being to our house maybe once or twice,and his wife not at all.Both of my parents would always speak to them when they saw them,but really only just to say hello.
Our driveway,as I remember it was gravel for the first few years we lived there.There was no garage for the car,just a driveway.And,there was a chimney halfway down the side of the house.Growing all around the chimney were bunches of yellow flowers that looked like sunflowers but were not.They were hard to get around even when we were not very big,as they seemed to reach out a long way into the driveway and were two or three times taller than I was.My father complained that they would scratch the car and my mother called them weeds.To me,they were flowers,but very different kinds of flowers than the ones my mother had begun to plant in the front,under our windows.The main difference was that nobody liked the flowers in the driveway.
At first I don't recall much about the surrounding streets and houses.But later,our neighborhood,which was still being built grew to have a lot of activity.I discovered,though,at some point that there were children living just behind our back yard.Most of those children were girls,and most were much older than my sister and I.There were two children ,though,who looked exactly alike,so that I could not tell the difference between the two.My mother said they were twins.I'd never seen twins before.Well,not really.The Mormon children that lived up the road in Redmondville looked very much one like the other and it was often hard to tell them apart even though they were of different ages.But these twins looked so much like one another that I never could tell which was which.
I never seemed to notice what went on in the one house beside us.That's where the Clarks lived.There were a few trees and bushes between our house,and our back yard really opened up the other way,so it was much easier to see into the Cormier's yard.Neither neighbor had children our own age,so seeing or going into their yard was not something we did much.Mr.Cormier would come out and work in his garden a lot.When the weather was warm he was almost always outside,when he wasn't working.He was a strong,sturdy looking man with square shoulders and slightly curly hair that was already beginning to turn grey.To use my fathers words,he was "built like a brick shithouse."Both he and his wife worked out in the yard when the weather was good.Although my parents got along well with the Cormiers,and,for that matter all the neighbors,they didn't seem to talk a lot.I can only ever recall Mr.Cormier ever being to our house maybe once or twice,and his wife not at all.Both of my parents would always speak to them when they saw them,but really only just to say hello.
Our driveway,as I remember it was gravel for the first few years we lived there.There was no garage for the car,just a driveway.And,there was a chimney halfway down the side of the house.Growing all around the chimney were bunches of yellow flowers that looked like sunflowers but were not.They were hard to get around even when we were not very big,as they seemed to reach out a long way into the driveway and were two or three times taller than I was.My father complained that they would scratch the car and my mother called them weeds.To me,they were flowers,but very different kinds of flowers than the ones my mother had begun to plant in the front,under our windows.The main difference was that nobody liked the flowers in the driveway.
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