The wedding was beautiful. My niece was lovely. Her bridesmaids were radiant…
Then everyone went home and I was left with time to browse through the rose garden at Colonial Park with my aunt…
……and the next day to wander alone down the historic Delaware/Raritan Canal tow path in the land of my childhood.
It was splendid!
Ginormous snapping turtles lounged on logs all along the way defying my efforts to capture their likeness…Lush growth of poison ivy kept me from getting too close….
All the while the heady sweet scent of honeysuckle accompanied me.
When I reached Bound Brook I found the grand building that was once my grade school,
and the old library where I sat in the Children’s Department one Saturday forty-some years ago and learned to crochet! 
For lunch I found an old sub shop on Main Street, that’s been there forever, and got myself an authentic Italian Sub
before having a quiet meander through the ancient cemetery beside the library…
…reading old gravestones with their stately fonts and quaint orthography…
”The Church We Say hath Suffurd 
Dere Frind By your Deceace.
The Crown is Won theres no more …
For you But Endless Peace.
As you are now So once was I…
Helth and Strenth though here [I lie]…
and as I am now So you must Be.
Prepare for Death and Follow me.”
“Here lies what is mortal of James Harris who died Aug.1,1813 in the 59 year of his age.
Confined by death to shade of night,
He lies conceal’d from mortal sight.
Till Jesus from the lofty skies,
Shall bid his slumb’ring dust arise.”
“To the memory of John Runyon son of Peter and Phebe Runyon who died Sept.11th 1822 aged 6 years and 2 months. His fond parents has erected this humble monument.”
Earlier in the week I walked with my mom through the graveyard where my own kin and those of my friends are buried—all these saints who have gone before us to what is truly glory.
It sits beside the old church building we called ‘The Assembly Hall’ where I prayed at the altar to ask Jesus to be my Saviour when I was just 10 or so…
Lindy Lake lies just beyond. 
Here I skated in winter and counted goslings in summer, had school picnics, picked strawberries and passed by endlessly walking home from school or just taking a lovely walk…But alas, not a decent
picture have I. It’s best in the mind’s eye I suppose.
Well… it was a wonderful and nostalgic trip ‘home’ to Zarephath, NJ, the perfect occasion to see cousins I haven’t seen in a dozen years—seems to take a wedding (or a funeral) to gather us from hither and yon! I will spare you all the pictures of kith and kin, except for these three…
of siblings (and Mom!),
of COUSINS!
and of my favorite sister!!
I end on this curious note—I love this little vent sitting quietly and unnoticed over the decades looking like a mushroom. I wonder if anyone has thought to take a picture of it before now…
‘Tis all for now–
–LS
