Dover Place

My parents moved us to Dover Place in 1968. I lived there until I left for my one and only year in college in 1977. I didn't really ever go back. Then, in 1986, Annette and I moved back to Dover Place. I can't quite put it into words what I feel when I look up and down the street; the canopy of sycamores and oaks, the quiet nights, the church around the corner. And the neighbors that you can't imagine living without. Tonight is our last night on Dover Place. We're moving to Center Court. Oh, I know it's not far from here. You'd laugh if you'd hear me describe it as "out of the neighborhood." It's not 10 minutes from here. But, it is out of my neighborhood. I don't know if I'll hear the bells of the Lutheran Church from Center Court. I hope so. But, we'll be back. That's right; one day in a couple of years, we'll move back to Dover Place or Bellerive Boulevard. There's a church in the valley by the wildwood No lovelier spot in the dale No place is so dear to my childhood As the little brown church in the vale Oh, come to the church in the vale To the trees where the wild flowers bloom Where the parting hymn will be chanted We will weep by the side of the tomb How sweet on a clear Sabbath morning To list to the clear ringing bell Its tones so sweetly are calling Oh come to the church in the vale From the church in the valley by the wildwood When day fades away into night I would fain from this spot of my childhood Wing my way to the mansions of light Come to the church by the wildwood Oh, come to the church in the vale

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