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The charming old village of New Castle, Delaware, was a happy discovery on a shining, warm, autumn day. It sits on the wide estuary of the Delaware River, and has at different times in its history been under the ownership of four different countries. That heritage is reflected in the four flags flying over the front door of the court house, which you see in the picture. The first country to have control of the region was The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Great Britain, and finally the United States. This building was the site of the signing of Delaware's first constitution on September 20, 1776, and was the state's first capitol until 1777.

I enjoyed a walk along a narrow cobblestone street, sunlight filtering down through the golden leaves of fall. A cat creeping down the steps of a narrow rowhouse walked with me up the street for a few hundred yards. The houses on that particular street looked to be more than two hundred years old. All appeared to be lived in and well-kept. No one was at home at two o'clock in the afternoon; the cat and I had the street all to ourselves. One car crept by, its tires making little slapping sounds as they rolled over the smoothed and rounded cobblestones, worn by centuries of traffic.