One More Ride Up St. Leonard Hill, Page Three

We drove south on Solomons Island Rd (the old road). Several times, it became the highway again, including on St. Leonard Hill, which looked the same, and surprisingly just as steep as I remembered it. We passed through familiar villages: St. Leonard, Port Republic, Lusby, and tiny Coster, which was more like a neighborhood with a general store. Lusby had changed the most; lots of strip malls, chain restaurants and convenience stores. Finally we reached Solomons.

Before we crossed the barely noticeable causeway that enters into the village of Solomons Island (it really is an island), we stopped at my other old school (Solomons Elementary), now the administration building of the Calvert Marine Museum, hugely expanded since my last visit. The old school building looked the same on the outside; inside it was completely changed. But just like the last time I was there, it still smelled like the old school. Someone explained that it's the old oiled floors. The museum is terrific, and I saw plenty of familiar artifacts of the oyster industry that flourished there until its gradual decline starting in the 1970s.

When we made the short drive around the densely populated island, we stopped at the ever-growing Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, which is right at the end of the island. My father worked there as a marine biologist, and my mother worked there as a librarian. Our first home in Solomons was a little cottage that we rented from the Lab, right behind the main building. It's gone now, replaced by a parking lot. But our house several miles north in the Solomons village of Dowell was still there, along beautiful St. John's Creek. It's still an idyllic spot, though the house has not been well maintained. No one was home, so we walked around the property. My family lived there 14 years.

The day of the reunion, we explored the whole county, driving every back road I could remember. Then we went to the reunion at the huge Rod ‘n Reel, a landmark restaurant that's been around for ages. It was a lovely and very moving event, simple, with lots of time for hugs and long conversations. I sat with my best buddies, most of whom had been my classmates all the way back in elementary school. There were 77 in our senior class, and more than 50 attended. It was the best and most meaningful reunion of all.