New York Years "Hatch's House"

I've written most of what I can remember of the Bahamas, so now I think I'll continue with the years we lived in Hoags Corner, just east of Albany, New York.

We left the Bahamas in June of 1967. We stayed in the Hatches' house in Lebanon Springs. It's a pretty community, a deep valley beneath rugged hills. I like to imagine how it looked to the early settlers as they stood on the hills and gazed down the valley. There's a statue of an Indian with the spring of water pouring over his hands.



The owner of the house, John Hatch, was instrumental in leading my grandfather to the Lord. I remember snippets of odd things about that place. I remember pull chains for the lights and faded roses on the wall paper in the bedroom I used. I remember a small brook behind the house where tadpoles wiggled between the rocks and wild raspberries grew. Even today, the tang of the season's first raspberry sends my mind back to that brook.




I don't think we lived in that house more than a month, but while we were there, my father bought me a new bicycle(since I had to leave mine in the Bahamas). It was an English style bike, with hand brakes and 3 gears when you twisted the right handle grip. I remember my mother asking me to go to the store down the street to buy some vanilla. I took the bike and nearly had a few accidents. I know at least one car honked at me. She had a fit when she found out I didn't walk.

My father also purchased a "merry-go-round" for my brothers. It was a red and white metal contraption with two seats and handles that made it spin when you pumped them back and forth. I couldn't ride on it long without getting sick to my stomach. Even watching them made me queasy. It looked similar to this picture:




I missed the Bahamas and Susan and the beaches and the palm trees, but this new place was interesting and exciting.