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This is Jenna Barry at the Medford Public Library on July 19, 2024. I'm here with Kelly Hansen. And Kelly is going to talk a bit about moving to Medford for the first time and owning her her home here in Medford from Boston. Um, moving to Medford.

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I was raised in the south end of Boston. So I was 20 minutes from downtown Boston, so you can imagine what a culture shock it was to move into Medford, which then was the suburbs to me. It was definitely the suburbs. Um, one of the first

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thing I remembered was that, um. I had to go back to Boston and make a recording of city sounds. I could not sleep at night out here. It was too quiet and all you hear in the morning is birds and I grew up next to the

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overhead trains with the buses going by and the kids going to school. I couldn't sleep out here. So we went back and we took a tape recorder and we recorded all the sounds of the trains and the buses and everything, and I would put them beside

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my bed and play them at night so I could sleep. We, um, the house we bought was a bit of a renovated cape. Which was, it was, it was a great home for a great price, and well, we had to renovate it because my husband was

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6'7. And he was constantly taking plaster off the walls when he walked through a doorway, you'd hear this out and then you'd hear plaster falling, and eventually I put signed up all around the house duck your head duck your head. Um, and or he'd run into

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the ceiling fan. So finally we said no, we have to do something. So we did a massive renovation, raised the ceilings 2 ft, and put a full 2nd floor because we had dormers. And he put in a circular staircase which. I get compliments on to this

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day. It's huge. Um, But it was, it was fun, we did a lot of the building ourselves. And um he, you know, when he went to work, I would do plastering, drywall, things like that, and being, you know, 7 months pregnant, it got a little interesting

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sometimes, but we had fun. And we enjoyed it and we. The area was perfect, you know, a good size backyard, good enough for the kids that we didn't know we were going to have because originally I Was told I couldn't have kids, but apparently they were

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wrong. One of the greater blessings in my life. Do you still live in that house? I do. I still live in that house and I'm still finishing it. It's never, never really been finished, but it's it's kind of a uh. A work in progress. So that's

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30 years now, is it 30? Might be coming up on 40. I'm not sure. Let me see, 87, 97, 2007, 2017, 18, 20223. Yeah, we're like what, 47 years in? And it's, I still haven't unpacked all the boxes yet. But it's, it's home. Yeah, this might

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be a good time to tell us about the neighborhood too. So you live on, you said Paris Street across from the um on the other side of the freeway, right? Yeah, so tell us a bit about the neighborhood. It's, it's a great neighborhood. It's the people

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are wonderful. I've seen people come and go over the last 40 years, and I can't remember all the names, but I never forget the faces and the personalities, and there was one person who I just absolutely loved, he was, um, he worked at the graveyard. And

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he one of his favorite jokes whenever he met somebody, he said, I'm the last person to let you down. And he was such a character and I really loved him. He lived across the street from us, um. I have people, the the person who lives next

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door to me has been there since I got there. And so I knew his father and him, and they were just they're they're. Great, his father's since passed away, but. He's a hardworking person and, you know, always looked out for me and the boys. Um, we

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have a house behind us, which is unusual. Most of the lots are full lots. We had about half a lot, so there's another house on the lot behind us. A wonderful couple lives back there. And uh they just got a puppy, absolutely adorable puppy. And a

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new family moved in to the right of us. I'm trying to think where I am. And uh they're all very nice, but we, we've really lucked out. We've lucked out with having really nice neighbors all up and down the street. People are saying hello to each

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other. People are sitting outside talking, um. They're very welcoming, you know, when I first moved on the street, I, I was like the first black person for a mile, you know, so I was a little, you know, trepidatious about moving in there and how are they

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gonna feel about me. No problem, people were just kind and. The policeman and the firemen. The fire stations right around the corner and They They were just so friendly, you know, and I, I mean, I grew up in Boston and I grew up with beat cops

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and they were friendly and they knew us well, well, they knew my dad well, but they knew us well. So. I was just naturally, you know, open towards the police, but I found that Medford police were incredibly friendly people, you know, so it was always, you

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know, always willing to talk if they weren't, you know, busy or anything, um, approachable, and so I introduced my kids to them. You know, and that's these are the people that you go to if you need help and you know, get to know these guys because

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you can trust these guys and, you know, so they got to know. A few of the police, they were really excited when they met Captain Barry Clementi because he used to do the reverse 911 calls and so they had heard his voice so many times and

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then there was one of those, um, you know, drug takeback things and they were both in their teens and I still had like, you know, my prenatal pills, so I figured time to turn some stuff in. And they got to meet him there and they were

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just like, you know, it was like meeting a celebrity. It's like, I know your voice, you know. So that was, that was a nice thing for them, you know. Yeah, sounds like a good experience. It is, it is. I mean, you know, we had our, there

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are ups and downs. I mean, when I was pregnant with my oldest son. I was walking down the sidewalk and I fell and it was all tar and it was, you know, and, and so I called the city and I said, you know, you redid the

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sidewalks across the street, could you please do these sidewalks, you know, I'm pregnant and I fell and they said, oh yeah, we'll put you on the list and you'll get that done. Peter was 25 when we got news. So there were some things, you know, that

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were a little belated in coming, but, you know, on a, on a whole. It's just a great place to live.