I finished high school in 1957 and left home to further my education and then I was away teaching in other areas. For the first few years I came home to the farm regularly. Gradually the visits back home became fewer and fewer with longer periods between each visit. My contact with people was limited to my brothers who stayed in the area and a few very good friends.
I married, had a family and raised them.
1957 is 60 years ago. Someone who was born after I left could be 60 years old. That means that there are few people left who I know or who have ever heard of me.
Well I ripped open the package as fast as I could . What was I receiving? My sister-in-law sent me 5 editions of the local paper. I haven't seen the local paper since 1973! She also had 4 memorial service bulletins.
Now of the 5 papers , there were 4 obituaries of people I knew. They were all in the upper 80's and 90's! I haven't found anything else in these 5 papers that I know anything about.
Now the one lady ran our country store. I bought lots of pop and candy bars from her! Good memories.
So the package reminds me of the passage of time. Two things go on. I change and my home town changes. We've both got 60 years older. I have lived a life in other areas with new and different people. It's changed me. I love my old home town and still refer to it as home, but there's no place for me in that little village.
So the package, although interesting, reminded me that our lives go on and we adapt to new people and places. These people and places are two of the many things that shape us as we pass through this world and become the people we are.
Our lives certainly do go on and we adapt. But it's fun to look back at different periods of life and feel a little nostalgic.
ReplyDeleteWe only remember the good times!
DeleteWell it can be interesting to go back in time for a moment and realize how you life has gone on in a different way than the people who still live in that place.
ReplyDeleteToday with globalization we wander much further than home. We have many Dutch people in this community.
DeleteThat was a bittersweet package to receive. I think your sister-in-law thought of you and wanted you to know about their passing. And yes it was a long time ago, but as you said, it's still "home."
ReplyDeleteThese people lived long and active lives...good lives.
DeleteIt is funny how I regard one town as my home town, we had moved to 11 homes my first 9 years of life. My father was military ,so when we finally settled it became my home town.
ReplyDeleteI know other families who have the same experience.
DeleteInteresting! What a blast from the past that must have been. I think we can never really go back to our old hometowns for exactly the reason you mention -- we change and the towns change. I still consider my small hometown in Florida "home," but it's a lot different now from what it was like when I lived there.
ReplyDeleteI go back less and less. Even the landscape has changed.
DeleteThat is cool!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what my sister-in-law did.
DeleteWhat a nice surprise!!i love packets!They are soo rarely to get this days..including letters if they not are bills
ReplyDeleteWonderful post Red
Yes , we rarely get personal mail...just business mail.
DeleteMy husband reads the obituaries from places we've lived in Texas. That's his morning computer ritual. He calls out names he thinks. I may remember. Yesterday the person was 91. Hard to imagine. The picture in my mind was of a 30 year old person. Time does get away from us.
ReplyDeleteFunny how the image of the 30 year old stays in our brain.
DeleteI think the towns near where I grew up won't really feel like home should I ever go back. It's been a long while, and the connections have largely been severed, especially since family have moved away from the area.
ReplyDeleteOnce family is gone it's hard to maintain any contact.
DeleteNo one in my family lives in my hometown...population at that time was 1,000. Now it might be 5,000, but I know very few anymore.
ReplyDeleteFamily is key for keeping in touch.
DeleteI'm not sure that if anyone sent me papers from the City where I spent the first 26 years of my life I would know anyone at all.
ReplyDeleteCities are different. I'm talking about a town with a population of 197!
DeleteWhat a nice thing for her to do; even if you found little in them of current interest, they still brought back some good memories. I grew up in a place so small we didn't have a newspaper :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I was not bought up in this town but the local paper serves our area.
DeleteI had a similar experience when someone sent me a copy of my middle school yearbook. It was such a link to a long-gone world. I had no idea I was such a dork.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if ny of us look back and see that we were cool?
DeleteIf you went back to Lanigan you could stay in The Ross Inn and have a nice meal out at the Lanigan Family Restaurant on Wexford Street. Perhaps you and The Micro Manager should travel there this summer. Catch up with folk you knew and absorb the atmosphere of a place that is in your bones. Or did you live just out of Lanigan ... maybe at Drake or Guernsey?
ReplyDeleteYou do have fun googling obscure areas. Yes I took my 3 years of high school in Drake with a population of 197! Actually you'll have to google Esk. Esk is classified as vacant. We got our mail in Esk and Our grandparents lived in this village of 50 people.
DeleteThe same thing happens to me when I go to my hometown. So much has changed there, and so many people have gone (for various reasons). This getting old thing, is not for the faint of heart.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time here. If you don't mind, I'm going to sign up!
Thanks for visiting Hiawatha house. Nice to have you follow me.
DeleteThat was a fun package.
ReplyDeleteNone of my siblings live in the small town near where we grew up. Now that my mother is gone, we really have very little connection with it. but there would probably be names in the local paper that I would recognize.
IT'S SAD WHEN A FAMILY DISAPPEARS FROM A LOCAL AREA.
DeleteAnother interesting post. In the same fashion as your sister-in-law I have old friends who now send me emails with obituaries for those who have passed. Sometimes I know those folks and sometimes I have forgotten them. Either way, it seems sad, but even so, I like for friends to keep in touch.
ReplyDelete