Time Travel

This weekend I am taking a trip back in time. I accompanying my younger son back to Western New York to visit a prospective college, which just happens to be the university my husband and I attended in the 1980’s.

The trip also involves travel back to a suburb were we used to live. We’ll be staying a night at my sister’s, a night at the school, and a night at my sister in law’s before travelling back to the midwest on Tuesday morning.

Right after we flew in the Buffalo International Airport last night, via Charlotte, we picked up the rental car and were en route to have Duff’s Famous Wings! Yes, the Anchor Bar is where the Buffalo Chicken Wing was given birth. But, while living in the Buffalo area for seven years, our favorite place to get wings was Duff’s.

The wings at Duff’s are unbelievable! They are crispy on the outside, juicy and meaty on the inside, and very hot! Medium is Hot. Suicide is unbelievably like your mouth is on fire, or so I hear! But, they are all delicious!

So, our first step back in Buffalo time was Duff’s Famous Wings.  They were soooooo good. I don’t mean to bash where we live now, but we’ve never found a wing or a restaurant that serves chicken wings taste like they do when they are from WNY!

Next we travelled to my sister’s house in a nearby suburb. There, we enjoyed some win and stories, while the cousin’s compared notes on their recent soccer seasons. We watched the iconic movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day off. We laughed and laughed, at the famous lines (about the diamond), the hairstyles, and the age of the actors (who are now our age).

This morning started with a trip to the local coffee shop for some java and cocoa. Then, we had a tour of three local high school soccer fields, all turf, and one with an impressive track, as well. Then, a trip to my all time favorite grocery store, Wegmans, for subs and some forgotten shaving supplies for my son!  You can read about my fondness for Wegmans in a from last year, here.

Then, it was back for lunch, some more visiting, and then taking off to campus, a two-hour drive into the Southern Tier of Western New York. After fighting some traffic that we aren’t used to, and the passing mega-mall, Walden Galleria, in Cheektowaga, we headed out through the Southtowns. This brought back a lot of memories of traveling to my in-laws house from where we used to live years, and years ago, north of the city to their house in south of Buffalo. The landscape and landmarks so quickly returned it was like we had never left!

Soon, we were traveling through a light snowfall on a two lane road in the countryside, winding our way further south pass farms, dilapidated and discarded trucks, antique and craft stores, and homes from decades past. It got hilly, more so than I remember! We were entering the village via a way I had never been before – past the ag-tech that was across the street from the university.

Pulling onto campus, as far as we could, we quickly past a couple of the dorms, the library, and alumni hall, where are tour will start tomorrow. I’ve traveled down a road into the past. It is my past, shared with my husband, and for the brief time in our immediate future, I’ll share it with my son.

It is an odd feeling, but not unwelcome, at all.