So many funky places to live. We walked down to the bay and found clusters of homes we never noticed before. Places that you can only get to by foot and can only see when the trees are bare. Seneca Road dead ends here at the Newport Yacht Club, thankfully not as fancy as it sounds. Just to the south Titus Avenue winds its way down to the bay. You can see the last of the homes on that street from here but you can only get there by boat. And to the north Point Pleasant goes down a steep hill to a gated community of condos but the road splits off into the forever funky Schnackel Drive and the private access walkway that leads by foot only to at least ten more homes that line the shore. All these neighborhoods are a short walk and each one makes you feel like you’ve left town.
Exactly one year ago today we had two other couples over for dinner. In our house without masks! An event we had arranged at the Little Cafe where Margaret Explosion was playing that Wednesday, the night news broke that Tom Hanks and his wife had Covid. Our house guest, Steve Black, had just left that morning. We went into lockdown the next day. Fast forward in a year that somehow went both fast and slow and we are only one week from being fully vaccinated. That is we had our second jab one week ago.
I remember some of those places. I used to go explore them on my bike. Some of the locals were not that friendly to strangers in the neighborhood, even a 12 year old on a bike. I was chased away by many an angry homeowner flailing at me with a rake.
Back in the day I suspect many of those places were not quite up to code or even legal residences. We only got so far on foot before some guy made it clear he was watching our every step. And we were met by Beware of Dog signs on another branch.
Yes, in the day it was all very rural along the lake. When I was very young you could still swim in the lake, it was a big draw in the summer (along with the Sea Breeze amusement park.) Some of those spots may have originally been summer cottages for those who could afford such things.