Personal History #6

 Where did you grow up?  What do you remember about this place?

I grew up in many places.  I moved from England in the 1st grade to Georgia, and then never really lived in the same house for more than 2 years until I was in the 8th grade, moving from Georgia to South Carolina once.  

But when I turned 13 we moved to a small middle Georgia town named Hawkinsville, population under 4000.  It is famous for few things, the Harness Festival, which is horse race and a football player, Charles Johnson who played for the Carolina Panthers.  But that was when my parents bought a little piece of land and a single wide trailer in the middle of a Georgia red clay dirt road. 

It was in that house that I meet and kept some of my closest friends.  It was here that I made countless memories, some good, some bad, some funny, some very sad.  

My parents expanded the 2 bedroom home very slowly, first they added a large front porch in the front of the home.  That was torn down eventually and they built a dining room/sitting area in the front and an additional room.  Then one weekend my step dad had a friend drop asphalt down on the dirt driveway and we all raked it as flat as we could.  That driveway ended being one bumpy, lumpy mess but we had done it.

One year I had gotten a tree for Arbor Day, I planted it in the corner of the front yard, year after year I would watch as the tree got larger and larger.  My mom decided to get chickens at some point, I remember the stupid rooster attacking everyone that tried to collect eggs.  

A few years back while visiting my sister, we went to the trailer.  It was abandoned and we snuck in.  We were both struck with immediate nostalgia, but also I was shocked at how small the house was now.  In my memories it was a much larger place.  I realized that it was all the family events, dinners, holidays, my moms knick knacks and 1000's of other little things that filled that now empty space that made it feel bigger.  

I'm often saddened that I have no home to go back to.  My friends and family who have their parents still around and essentially their childhood home still around never quite understand how blessed they really are to have it.  I feel like the loss of my parents and my childhood home attached to that loss, made me appreciate the everyday moments that I have with my children, they push me to make each holiday, event, birthday that much more special and precious.  I know my children dont appreciate that, but someday they will and that is all that counts.