Time to hit the road

We are moving. By the end of next month, we will have packed up, filled the moving trucks, and headed across the border to Sterling.

We've been planning on going anyway, but this weekend's news that a mother and her 10-month old baby were victims of a drive-by shooting just up the road makes it easy to leave without looking back:

LEOMINSTER -- A woman and her 10-month old son escaped a drive-by shooting unharmed late Friday night, Police Lt. Raymond A. Booth said Saturday....

The woman told police she had just pulled into a parking space at the Litchfield Terrace apartment complex when she saw a dark-colored Ford Explorer or Expedition approaching, Booth said.

"She reported seeing three men wearing hoods and masks in the motor vehicle," he said. "She reported the vehicle slowing down in front of her...."

"She heard what sounded like five or six shots being fired," he said. "She heard shots hitting the motor vehicle and she ducked down."

The baby was in the back seat of the car during the incident.

I wish it were an isolated incident, but I fear that the city is becoming a little rougher than I'd like. The gas station on the corner near the site of the shooting has been held up more ore than once in the last few months, and there have been other incidents in this part of town. Maybe the city has always had it's share of shootings and violent crime--and because of our new family or other factors I'm just more aware of it now--but it just seems like things have worsened in the last year or so.

I'm not afraid to drive down the street, but I'd just as soon know that if I have to go out to get milk, I'm not going to get shot or robbed.

We were going to move out of town at some point...we've been talking about it since we moved back to Leominster five years ago. It's not that we don't like Leominster-- frankly, it's a pretty good place to live as small cities go--but we had hoped to be able to buy a house in Lancaster or Sterling on a quiet street with a big yard and a dog (not included in the sale) and all of the other little things that you think of when you think of a place to raise a family.

Our plan was to move at some point before Jackson is old enough to go to school. We didn't figure it would happen this quickly, but it did and we're excited about our new place.

And while I grew up in Leominster and consider it home, it's time to move on.

Tags: Massachusetts Leominster Sterling crime