The "Awning Experience" Story

Prelude:  This story was started early in the morning, while the family slept, during our annual visit to Ocean City, NJ.  Part way through the story the wireless connection failed and the story mistakenly posted to my blog.  Half a day later when I was able to access the Internet again I realized the problem with half a story being posted.  Well, some of you may have read the first half of this story and can now skip to the second half, but in case you haven't viewed it before, enjoy the entire story.  Sorry for the problem.

Awning similar to the one on our home on Queen St.

It was an ordinary day.  Walked a few blocks around our condo to pick up a newspaper this morning and saw house after house that brought back pleasant childhood memories, for you see the streets of Ocean City, New Jersey are lined with houses that have ornamental white wooden railings and roofs rimmed with colorful canvas awnings.  When I was in my pre-teen years and living on North Queen Street near the Lancaster Train Station, my mom and dad always had a tan canvas awning hanging from the front porch roof.  Also had one on the north side of the porch, but not on the opposite side since that side joined the neighbor's  porch.  Had many fond memories of playing and sitting with friends and family on the front porch and just loved when the weather started getting warmer in the spring and dad decided it was time to get out the metal porch furniture and put the awnings up.  Carried the awnings from the basement, opened them in the back yard and scrubbed them using soap, bucket and the garden hose.  Also had to carry all the cast iron metal poles that were used to support the canvas awning.  Dad grabbed the old wooden step-ladder and attached the awning to the wooden rail under the spout with the same hooks that were a permanent part of the railing and fit into the grommet holes in the awning.  Then he would slide the long metal pole into the seam on the bottom of the awning.  On either end of the pole he would attach a threaded metal angle that then would accept a shorter pole that would travel through a sleeve on the side flap of the awning.  These two shorter poles, one on either end of the front awning, would be fixed with hardware to the corner posts of the porch.  Ropes and pulleys would finish the job and would be used to raise the awning in case of inclement weather to prevent damage to the awning.  Pretty neat to watch and dad always made it more exciting with his yelling at mom and cursing at the awning.  Then ........... he would have to do it all over again on the open side of the porch.  Boy did our house look neat with that awning on the front.  Looked like houses on the TV show "Leave it to Beaver."  Most of the houses on the last block of Queen Street had matching awnings and added a touch of unity to the block.  Back then there really was such a thing as a neat city neighborhood block; ours!  Over time the awning would get damaged and maybe could be repaired, but eventually had to be replaced.  This was a costly expense and took months of saving to be able to replace it.  In the mid-60s mom and dad sold the house on Queen Street and moved to Helen Avenue in Grandview Heights, another really neat neighborhood, but one that had very few homes with awnings.  I had graduated from high school by then and awnings weren't a big concern of my by then.  Girls, cars and college, in that order, had replaced awnings on my priority list.  But, every year, when we travel to Ocean City for the family vacation, I still enjoy walking through the neighborhoods admiring the many awnings that grace the neighborhoods.  Green, tan, blue or what ever color as long as they are canvas, bring back the memories from my childhood.  Something from my past that I will probably never see on a house that I own.  Sad at times, since my kids never had the awning experience as I did!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.