One of the hardest parts about living in the house I grew up in is the fact that the Woods across Shoen Road, our childhood playground, was torn down and houses put up.
On the day after we moved in, in August of 1969, our neighbor Mr. Langan took a bunch of kids back into the Woods. There was a old tree fort already there, built years ago, which we named “City Hall”. There was a vine there that you could climb up on to City Hall and swing out. Everyone tried it, and then Mr. Langan tried and brought the whole vine structure down, and we could never do it again!
It was Mr. Langan’s son John, who became my best friend, and because of age differences would later become my brother’s friend, who made up most of the names. There was a Creek that ran through the Woods, and John came up with letter designations for the different places, Creek A, Creek B, Creek C, and Creek D.
Having spent so much time in the Woods as a kid, the images of the places and tree forts are seared onto my mind. One day I decided to start drawing them.
After I drew them I sent them to my brother. He said they looked good, and asked to send them to John Langan. Of course I said yes.
Langan, as we affectionally called him, replied and said how cool the drawings were, and that we should get permission from the homeowners and take metal detectors and see if we can find anything from our childhood. We used to do that when we were kids. Each spring, after the winter took it’s toll on our little community of tree forts, we would go back and find things from the summer before, and we would call them “Antiques”.
The next day my brother texted me that John Langan had passed away!
We were devastated. It had been a couple years since I had talked to John, and as we were about to connect again, he was gone. Then it occurred to me that some of the last images that went through John Langan’s mind as he was about to leave this Earth were my drawings that would bring back joyous memories of our childhood.
I don’t know why I chose to draw these when I did, and I don’t believe it was a coincidence that they coincided with John Langan’s last day. These drawings have incredible spiritual meaning.
John F. Bergin
February, 2024