Chapter IV continued

Like the inside of our house in Moncton,the outside was very different as well.We had both a front and a back yard,and the back yard was leafy and grassy.The front yard was still made of dirt,no grass had yet been planted.We had a gravel driveway,but we no longer played in the driveway.We parked the car there and there was a profusion of tall yellow flowers that looked like sunflowers,but weren't.They would reach down and grab you if you were trying to walk through the driveway,and they were far taller than I was.There were bushes on the other side of the driveway as well,and here in the city the houses were close together,so there was no real room to play.

On the end of our house opposite the driveway,between our house and the Cormier's it was cool and shady all of the time,so it was a good place to be when the weather was hot.Sometimes my mother would bring out a  blanket and we could all nap there.I could also see down into Mr.Cormier's basement.Down there there were hundreds of things that looked kind of like glasses,the sort you drink out of.That's not what they were though,it's just the only thing I knew enough about to compare these things too.At that point,I had no idea what I was looking at.

Mr.Cormier had a garden.It took up almost all of his back yard,and when the weather was fine,both he and his wife were out there working,hoeing,digging up weeds and picking vegetables.There seemed to be a million different things growing and I had no idea what most of them were.But since there was almost always someone in this garden,I no longer worried about pigs.

Mr Cormier was a short,heavy man.To use my fathers words he was "Built like a brick shit house." He was older looking,with tight bulky musculature and a head of mostly gray curly hair.Most of the time he worked shirtless,and so he would get very red.Both he and his wife were on friendly terms with my parents right from the start.Later on,he would come over to our place and turn over a place for a garden in our yard,using a gas powered tiller.It was a big machine that made a lot of noise and seemed to be very hard to handle.It looked as though it was fighting with Mr. Cormier.His wife would talk to us from the edge of the yard,but never came to visit. Mr. Cormier only was ever in our  house once that I know of,about a year after we moved in.

One of the things I do recall that we worried about at our new house was dogs.Back in those days,the sub division wasn't really finished.It wasn't much like the way you think of a modern city today,and there were always dogs running loose.My mother worried dogs a lot,whenever we were outside,but especially if we were in he front yard.She was always watchful.I wasn't sure whether or not I liked dogs at all.I'd never had much to do with them,but I keyed into my mothers concern about them.Sometimes a dog would come down the street and knock over the garbage can,which you would always put  out for Monday pick up.Some of the neighbors used plastic bags for garbage,and the dogs could tear right into those.But hey had little trouble getting into cans either,and if they got a start,the garbage would soon be all over the road.I'd seen this happen from our living room window once,and it was beginning to  make me think I really didn't care for dogs at all.Still,I was quite curious about them,and could never recall having touched one.So I wanted to,but my mothers worry was influencing me away from it.

The rest of our neighborhood wasn't finished.Our street had always been paved,and most of the houses were built when we arrived.Some of them were even much older than ours.They'd been there for years,and back then,they didn't tear houses down to build sub divisions.They just built around anyone who didn't want to move.But all of the other streets were not finished.Not only were they dirt,dusty and full of potholes,but none of the houses were built either.Our new neighborhood was still very much a work in progress.