Last Wednesday evening, as I laid in bed and, for the third or fourth night of trying to relax enough to get to sleep while our dog huddled right beside me shaking from the sound of thunder, I began another “journey” through my childhood neighborhoods.

Some people count sheep to try and get to sleep. I sometimes resort to roaming – or in this case, taking a bike ride – in my past experiences, usually my younger years as I am on my second hour of being awake.

I have written before about what a wonderful experience I, and others mentioned later in this piece, had growing up here in Boothbay Harbor in the ’60s and ’70s. There were so many families and kids to hang around with it sometimes boggles my mind. On any summer day, you could find something to do – whether it was just stopping by to say hello, join in some game, swimming in the ocean, taking a hike in the woods, organizing the next day’s activities, or stopping at McDougall’s store, the East Side Market, Brewer’s Market, Zina Murray’s candy store/barbershop, or Mitchell’s/Wheeler’s drug store to get a soda, Popsicle, or candy.

During my “sleepless bike ride,” I discovered that I could hook up with or give a wave to friends or acquaintances every 100 or 200 yards apart. No kidding. It was most evident from our house on Gilead Street, located off Union Street – and just a “great Frisbee toss” from the newspaper office where I work.

Mike Lewis lived about 50 yards from us on Gilead. He was an only child and was about six years older than I was but he was always looking for some company. During the winter months, he would ask his mother Etta if it was all right to invite us Burnhams to play a few games of pool.

Heading toward the east side on Union – I am only going to take you as far as the Pines Motel on Sunset Road off Atlantic Avenue on this journey because the list of names is too long to mention the other neighborhoods here – there were the Wallace girls (Jane, Lynda, Elizabeth and Kathryn) on the right side of the road. On the left side were Craig and Brent Giles, and their stepmother, Muriel, was always cordial.

As you round the corner and head south onto Atlantic Avenue, Chet and Alice Fossett’s kids – Elaine, Brian, John and Jim – were either hanging out or doing something fun on their big lawn.

Diagonally from the Fossetts were Mike Wood and Mark Stover – Mike was older and Mark was one year younger than I was, so Mark invited me into their house a few times to enjoy their mom Peggy’s cookies and to show me his “stuff.” Mike would join the gatherings at Pat’s Pond or behind the grammar school for ballgames.

Across from the Fossetts were Glenn and Gary Tilton – younger but always eager to hang out with the “East Siders.”

Just a few rotations of the bicycle wheels later, there was Marge Brewer (Kilkelly), the Curtises (Cynthia, Ellen and Mark), Gregory Erskine … then the East Side Market, the Rowes (Sue, Nancy and Marianne) Zina’s and Brewer’s Market … and on to the Catholic Church; Saturday morning Catechism classes with Helen Silva (sp.?)  were not over soon enough for us kids booking for our First Communion or Confirmation.

The Farrins, Clive, Jim and Elizabeth, lived on the corner of Atlantic and Lobster Cove Road and Kevin Murray lived on the hill across from Boothbay Lobster Wharf – the Lobstermen’s Co-Op back then.

Up the hill past Brown’s Wharf and on to Sunset Road – there on the left is where Dennis, Bill and Bob Hallinan grew up and nearby was where Mary, Jim and Kathy Alley lived.

Up the hill was the Pines Motel where Mom worked for a few years as a chambermaid. I remember meeting her up there and sometimes accompanying her on her long walk back home (we never had a car growing up).

Perhaps on another journey, I’ll wander off Union Street and Atlantic Avenue onto School Street, Park Street, Kenney Field Drive, Campbell Street and Bay Street … where there were dozens more families.

Glad I kept my bike in good working order!