Nanny's house in Connecticut

I am bored on a bus in Peru right now...massive traffic jam on the way to Puno, allegedly caused by some race cars...so I guess I'll get lost in some memories.

Nanny lived in the States until after Grampa Les died. Her house was two levels with a dark wood paneled stair case. One of those kinds that goes a couple steps up, has a landing where you turn and continues the rest of the way up along the wall. As a child I was quite convinced that there was a secret door just a step or two above that landing that led to a different world. That world looked suspiciously like Fraggle Rock, now that I think of it.

JJ lived next door with his grandparents. We liked going to visit Nanny so we could play with JJ. He had this triangle red bum scooter that you sat on and wiggled and it would ride up and down the driveway. Mom and dad bought us each one when we got back to Canada.

There was a beach close by where we found these long tubular sea shells. Nanny said the seagulls smash them open on rocks and eat the slug inside. Dad used his cigar to smoke one out to show us. I remember that it smelled and I felt bad when they chucked it onto the water and a gull grabbed it. Seemed to me that it was doing just fine until we came along.

Then mom told us about how when she was a little girl, she was at the beach in England playing with her favourite doll, throwing it into the air and catching it. A seagull swooped by and snatched it out of the air and flew away with it. They chased it as far as they could but weren't able to recover her doll. I recall that story breaking my heart.