Hancock Street walk

You are about to walk several blocks down Hancock Street to Beverly's childhood home. This is is also the neighborhood she patterned Klickitat Street after and where Ramona and Henry and all their friends lived.

Beverly would have walked down these same sidewalks to pick up sugar from the grocery store or to return a book to the library or to visit a friend's house. She would have roller skated on sunny days or stomped her galoshes in puddles on rainy Portland days. Henry would have delivered papers from his bike along this street and Ramona would have played Brick Factory with Howie in one of the driveways.

As you walk, imagine you are Beverly or Ramona or Henry. Depending on the season, they would have passed the same plants growing in the yards: towering rhododendron, shade-loving hostas, and flowering hydrangeas in pink or blue. You might scuff in autumn leaves or you might pass summery vegetable gardens growing right by the sidewalk.

Close your eyes and listen for a minute. What do you hear? Possibly the distant rumble of traffic, children playing, lawn mowers, or rain on the pavement - and always the friendly cawing of crows, the soundtrack to life in the Pacific Northwest no matter what season.

Keep your eyes open for a stained glass window in a fence, a garage that looks like a castle, and a face smiling down at you from a chimney. What other interesting things do you see?

https://www.opb.org/article/2023/04/11/crows-took-over-downtown-portland-then-they-left-what-happened/