121 Wepawaug Drive
by Do you have a place that haunts you?
Have you ever left a place in your life, but the place refuses to leave you? That place for me it 121 Wepawaug Drive. To this day, some thirty seven years after leaving it, it still haunts me.
I was born there forty seven years ago in March. I lived there for the first ten years of my life. Ten seemed more like fifty, as I look back on it now. Ten of the worse years anyone should ever have to endure. I have horrible nightmares about 121 Wepawaug Drive dear readers. Ones that repeat themselves, over and over.
It was a nice small sort of place, I suppose. I remember there were no people except for white people. I merely mention this because I am of Italian heritage, and my skin complexion is very dark. For these first years, I learned early on what racism was all about. I used to get chased home by the local bullies that we all know so well. In the winter months, it was especially harder for me for they would make snow balls with rocks inside of them. I can clearly remember running for my life one day – I was small so running fast for me was not so fast for others. I was on the sidewalk, getting ready to run across the street, I looked both ways to make sure it was clear, and BAM! Got clocked right on the side of my head, and good! That’s the last thing I remember. I was out like a light!
It was also the kind of neighborhood where I spent these first ten years with some my own age. Paul Liekowski, who lived two houses down from us, was one of my best friends. I spent all my time with him and Janice Simon, who lived across the street and about four houses down. That was during the days when folks didn’t always lock their doors at night – of course my mother did, but that was to make sure she locked the evil inside, so it wouldn’t get out.
I used to get up real early and walk over to Pauly’s house. I loved going there. It was a real family and I felt so safe there. I would be sitting at the kitchen table when Pauly’s mom would stroll in to see me sitting there waiting for them to wake up. She was always so kind to me. She was my mother’s best friend at the time. Only she had no idea what was really going on behind our closed doors.
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