This week, twenty years ago, we moved into our house. 19 Lincoln Street, the house I was not supposed to see. Though raised in Medway, I had a stint of living in Bellingham for a few years. Our first house, 31 Sheila Drive, was perfect for us at the time, but it was meant to be a short-term residence. Buy, build, move on. I wanted “anywhere but Medway”, my wife wanted anywhere “including Medway”. My wife and I are not shoppers. One of the things I love about her the most. We want a house, we will take a day and find a house. The market was different back then. October 18th, 2023, our 6th wedding anniversary. We toured houses set up by our real estate agent and friend Carol. I remember pulling her aside and quietly saying – no houses in Medway, half joking. Hopedale, Millis, Franklin, we looked all around… then she said she had one more. She pulled down Lincoln St, which was her street. Passed her house, and parked in front of 19. There was a crew there redoing the roof – I would find out later they did a crap job, and she said this was the last one. My wife said this was the one before we went into the house.

There was no point in fighting. This would be our house. It was old, empty except for a piano, and needed work, but livable. It had belonged to the Kenny’s, a family I knew of in town. They had been renting it out for years. The seven (I believe) boys and their sister had all grown up and moved out. Their Mom was a fixture at the local grocery store when I was a kid, everyone knew her. Two months later, we moved in. We have done a lot to it, added the barn, tried to burn it down twice, heating, bathroom, doors, windows, brought in four dogs, two cats, the four and two year old we started with are now adults, the 300+ year old tree in the front yard is gone, and parts of the original roof (not joking) were just taken off a couple years ago when I redid the roof the right way. We have given it twenty years of its 140+ years. I hope to give it many more. I was told just this past Sunday, “You live in Kenny’s house, right?” I am not sure how many years I need to be here before it is the Rice’s House. Maybe the next family will hear about the photographer who lived here with the giant dogs. Though it might be akward since I told the kids to bury me in the dirt basement.

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A few weeks back, I wrote about those days. The days that stick out in your memory and have been significant over the years. June 28th is another one of my days. I am sure many have days/weeks like this one. This was our vacation week for years. The kids worked at a summer camp since they were little, so this was the only week we had open until summer’s end. Even before that, when I worked for Kodak, it was a big week of travel for me. We would try to meet before the July 4th Holiday. Now that the kids are older, we have been home for the last couple of years, so I always get the itch to go somewhere this week. But on this day, I have stood in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York City, San Francisco, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Dallas, Nova Scotia, on a Cruise Ship in the Atlantic Ocean, and Iceland. Some more than once. Today, I took this in my driveway.

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The alarm went off this morning, getting ready for my day, anyone could have told me I would have a photo of this house by the end of the day I would have laughed at them… then I got a text. Apparently, I left my camera bag and a lens in the park yesterday after a session. Second time in my life I have left equipment behind just sitting on the ground, not bad odds I guess until I admit both times were in the last month –  losing your mind is not fun kids, but that is not the point of the post. The text “Good morning, Tim. This is Jeff, a resident in Medway. We found your camera bag with a Nikon lens in Choate park. Let me know how I can get it back to you.” Until that moment, I did not even know it was missing. I was horrified, yet so relieved the right person came across it. I have not even gotten to the crazy part yet. Jeff follows up with his address, and some times, I can grab the bag. The address belongs to the house in the photo. This is the house I grew up in, the front left corner is/was my room for 16 years. 13,000 + people in town, my bag was randomly found by the family who lives in my childhood home. I am not too crazy that I am losing my mind and all that, but I have to say, kind of cool it happened. I got to meet Jeff, who also is a photographer – he got to shoot the full eclipse in the path of totality, awesome photos – tour my old house, which Jeff and his family have made into even a more beautiful home than I remember. A lot of changes in 30 years, my Dad’s Silver Maple I loved as a kid is huge, I would kill to have the new kitchen they have, I miss that pool which now shares space with the ultimate entertaining area, walking through the front door was strange but comfortable at the same time. Things happen for a reason, good people are still out there, and in the end, we are all just caretakers of these addresses. I was happy to revisit one of my favorites and meet the new caretakers. Thanks to Jeff and his family. I hope to pay forward the good karma. 

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