Merrimack, How You've Changed!

uesday I had to go to Merrimack for an NHCCM meeting. I spent a lot of my childhood in Merrimack. Even though I didn't much care for football, I first learned to throw a football on the lawn of my parents' friends' house on Depot Street, off US-3. I remember when that (the Reeds Ferry area) was mostly woods and houses. Now it's Walgreens and Shaws and 7-Eleven and stores and all kinds of development. At least Tortilla Flat is still there. A sad reminder of childhood's end: Good Times, the skating rink my Mom used to bring me to as a really yound child (we're talking late 70s, early 80s) is closed and up for sale. I miss going there. I miss roller skating, even if I was horrible at it and never really did get the hang of it until it was too late and my Mom stopped skating and taking me there. It's sad to see an icon from my childhood closed up and for sale. Overall it was just weird to see Merrimack so developed all the way up US-3 now. That used to be the sticks. Now it's pretty much urban or suburban sprawl all the way up past Manchester.

Oh. Side note. Manchester has joined Boston on the list of places I hate to drive. US-3 just disappears if you're driving south on it. I never remembered it doing so before, but this time I got lost. Then again, I never really was all that fond of Manchvegas. :P

It was nice to get south in the state again, even if it was for work and I couldn't get to Nashua to visit family and friends, or stop in Concord to visit Pauly. A week from this Saturday we'll be going to Nashua for the weekend (provided my parents are around and okay with us staying there) to visit family and friends, and also to Milton for Liam's birthday party. The truck handled the trip down and back well enough that I think we'll be able to drive just fine, though I'm sure the gas bill will be outrageous. It might be the last time for a while because I think at this point round trip bus fare is almost cheaper than the gas, and most likely more eco-friendly since the bus makes the trip whether we're on it or not. I just wish Concord Trailways went all the way to Nashua. Good thing my parents are willing to drive to Manchvegas to pick us up.

When I was a child, Merrimack seemed so far away from Nashua. Now Merrimack seems so much further away in not only space but time. Nashua is just that place I go to visit people, though I still have plenty of memories. It's changed so much, too, but I've been back so often that I've seen it all along. Manchester? Meh. I still feel the same, which is to say I treat it with the same degree of fear and loathing. I've never felt safe there. Maybe that's why I hesitate to take the bus there?