You've heard the old saying "you can't go home again." Well I don't believe that because I just went back home this past weekend. When I say "home", I don't mean the house I grew up in. I mean the town I grew up in. Sure, it's a little different now - 18 years after I left for college. There are some new businesses there and not everyone lives in the same places as they did back then, but it's still home. And it always will be. That little town in Northeast Alabama on the banks of the Tennessee River will always be home to me. Most of my family is still there and some of my best memories are there too.
This past weekend was a special trip down memory lane for me. I got to spend a little time with my oldest friend in the world. Brian lived directly across the street from me for most of my life. He remembers the day I came home from the hospital. While other kids moved in and out on our little street, the two of us were always there. I hadn't seen him since he left for the Navy right after he graduated - about 20 years ago. It was so cool to see him again, meet his daughter, and introduce him to my kids. When he saw Katelyn, he smiled and said, "It's you."
We had fun reminiscing a little bit about the crazy things we did when we were kids. Like the time we had the bright idea of playing volleyball and using the power lines as the net. We wound up knocking two of the lines into each other and chaos ensued. Unless you want to see fire shooting from power lines and blow a transformer causing a power outage, I don't recommend trying that. We also wondered at how we never broke a window while playing baseball in my front yard. And we both talked about how much our little town had changed over the years. After we caught up for a little while, he and his daughter got back in their truck and drove away. I sat with a smile for a while after he left, remembering all of the great times we had when we were kids. And for just a little while, I truly did go back home again.
No comments:
Post a Comment