Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Current mood: mellow
So what makes a hometown? Where you grew up? Where you still have people to go back to? Where you've stayed long enough to make memories and have an address to receive mail at? Where people know you? Take your pick. Depending on which of those you think defines a hometown I'd have a different city as an answer for each of those questions.
Alameda, California that's where I began to grow up, sure I moved away right before I turned 12. But boy did I do some things before I left there, things that I'm sure would have DFC's crawling all over a parent these days. I grew up on Willow Street and that has got to be my favorite home, a cool attic made into my sisters room and they had their own bathroom! The main floor that's where my room was, it was pretty nice (but if truth be told I was a tree climbing, ball throwing, lizard catching tomboy and I hated that my room was pink.) The best part of the main floor; the laundry chute in the bathroom! If I knew there was a pile of laundry downstairs that was the quickest escape you could imagine... pop there I go and a nice soft landing. The basement: you had to go outside and around the side of the house to go downstairs but there was a cool office when you went in and a nice storage area, the laundry room - in the other direction when you entered the basement was the TV room. It was the best... two half circle benches with tables a couple recliners the TV and a bar. A great place to hide out. When my mom worked evenings and my dad was home he'd let me stay up and watch TV with him usually something like M.A.S.H. It was great, that's when I felt like daddies little girl. You might wonder what I meant with that DFC's comment, well there was nothing wrong with how my parents raised me. But, I can't imagine any parent in there right mind now-a-days letting a girl 9 years old or younger take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to San Francisco, Fremont or out to Daily City (where my sister who lived in Suisun would pick me up.) I also grew up enjoying walking 6 blocks West to the beach or 6 blocks East to the docks where my brothers boat slip was. It was a great childhood, and a great place to consider my hometown.
Pocatello, where there are still some people who know me. My family was originally from the Pocatello area. I was born in California only because my father worked for the Naval Air Station at Alameda as a Civil Engineer. When my father retired from that position he barely took a breath as a retired man before he received a call from ISU Vo-Tech asking that he come to work as an instructor in their machining program. It was a great fit (my grandfather had a machine shop in Pocatello, he taught my dad the trade) and it came at an opportune time, my parents were in the midst of deciding where to move next. It just so happened that the offer swayed them and it meant my parents could move back to 'their hometown' and help look after my grandparents on my father's side. It was a bit hard for me to move I started out in 7th grade there, I had part of the summer before to make a few friends before school started but it was hard to start in a new place and make new friends. I did enjoy living in Pocatello (I actually lived in Chubbuck, but they are close together.) I made some good friends more through High School and College and even more once I finished college and went to work at the local newspaper. A good number of the friends I made there have moved on to new cities and towns but I can still run into friendly faces there that know me and my parents and some extended family are still there. So call that my hometown if you like.
Here's the speed version on a few places I made memories and received mail; I lived in Jackson Hole Wy for the summer in 1987 and oh yea did I ever make some memories there and yes I had an address - granted my mail went to Jenifer c/o general mail... but it was an address, I also lived in Salt Lake City for a few quarters while I pursued my education in Fashion Merchandising... until I became disillusioned upon completing a school assignment that clearly indicated many of the very stores I'd love to work for and become a Buyer preferred to promote from within. So, I let me focus slip, I had fun living there for a while and oh yea I made memories, then I packed my bags and headed back to Poky.
Since that time I did complete my college education in Pocatello at ISU School of Applied Technology in Graphic Arts, and went on to work at the local paper for five years. At the end of that five years I married James and I was off again moving across the country.
James and I lived in St. Marys, GA for a few years while he was still in the Navy. We made some great friends there Navy buddies and some friends in town. It's harder to run into people we know there now, the Navy crowd as you'd guess tends to move on, but if I try hard enough I can still find familiar faces there. And oh yea there were memories made!
After completing his time in the Navy James and I moved to Monroe, GA (Metro Atlanta.) We bought our first home, we lived a little over an hour away from just about everyone James is related to, and we both found our niches in the work community. We made friends anywhere in a hour drive from our house to just around the bend. There are still people there who know us and we try to make a point to see them every so often when we go back. And yea as you'd guess we made memories there too!
Get your mind out of the gutter if you went there, not all memories are those memories.
Now we live in Lakeland, FL this move came about due to a job for James "that was too good to pass up." And recently this became home... and it's a town so you put it together. When you live someplace and can run into someone you know across town or at the store around the corner, yup that's home. So I ran into Mellanie and Mike at Publix's in December and I ran into Julie all the way on the North end that same week, that's the day I say yes this city also is my howetown. And I know before James and I tire of this place and move on we will make many memories here too.
So as I eluded to in my basic description take your pick I have lot's of hometowns, you might say I feel this way because I believe in being happy where you land.
This one's a little long but don't sweat it not all my posts will be this long winded.
See you later allig8tor.
Currently watching : To Kill a Mockingbird
