We grew up right on the
Worcester line. But it mostly changed a lot by development—like almost every
place I guess. The Auburn Mall, which is there now, was never there. We lived
right behind—and my parents still live there—right behind what’s now an
industrial park. It used to be a sandpit when we were growing up, and it ended
up becoming an industrial park and the other thing that was huge, that I think
changed was that 290, the interstate highway, went right through where the
industrial park was right behind our house. Maybe about—our street that we grew
up on was a dead end so maybe like six more houses and then at the end of the
road is right where the highway went through. There was a pond and I think you
can kind of gauge the progress and what happened with the neighborhood a lot by
the pond because when my mom grew up here, there was a dance hall and it was an
active pond. People would come from all over the town to dance at the dance
hall and have parties there, and so it was kind of like a resortish kind of
place. And then as the pond got stagnant, and a lot of it I think had to do
with the highway going in—with a lot of the development that went around the
pond, that the dance hall went. We used to fish in it when we were kids, and
now there’s just nothing worth fishing for in it. So we kind of saw that go
downhill. So it changed in that way I think a lot. It’s still a community
though. I still go, and everybody—the neighbors, their houses are very close
together; a lot of the grandkids have taken over the houses.
From Voices of Worcester Women