You can’t go home again and I couldn’t wait to get back home
“You can’t go home again” is very true as when you return, it is never the same as your memories led you to believe. Home for me has always been the house below that my parents built and lived in for 57 years. When asked where home is, I have always named this one red-light town in Kentucky although I haven’t lived there since high school, other than a few retreats. Now that my parents no longer live there and I just spent my last night, I have lost “My Old Kentucky Home”. My siblings and I have just emptied their house and our grandmother’s house behind theirs and they will both be auctioned off in October. The soul of both is now gone but I’ll always have my memories. Other than a few friends and classmates, I have no more living connections to the town. All four grandparents and my father are buried in cemeteries there and P and I will be one day as well. I’ll return for high school reunions, yet a main link in my life has been broken …..
My mother had not planted her annual petunias between the boxwoods in the window boxes for many years. Suddenly this one appeared this summer and we have all been cheering it on.
I took four truck loads of clothing and household items to a Goodwill about 35 miles away. Between three children, three grandchildren and all of the spouses taking what they wanted, we decided there wasn’t enough good items left to hold an estate sale. After we removed all the books that we wanted, I still took over 800 to Goodwill during trips.
How many hummingbirds can Kishik count?? This was a view out a side kitchen window of my brother’s house. His family had a dinner for me one night after I had made a delivery as they are in the same town as Goodwill.
I took two truck loads to the local historical society’s museum, including a bench from our old demolished courthouse, one of my father’s National Guard uniforms, my Beatle wig and Boy Scout uniform. (don't worry Jayden, I kept the platform disco shoes!)
They had a retaining wall with stairs full of geodes so I knew I was donating to the right place.
I am a life time member of the town’s historical society and for the first time attended one of their meetings while there. I knew just about everyone in the room. After the meeting, a guy running for mayor in November wanted to show me something in his car. This 125 pound beauty took up almost the entire backseat and was headed the next day for the Kentucky State Fair to be used as part of a display. A different man that actually grew it also had two bigger ones that were to be entered in competition. One of them won the second place ribbon for the largest watermelon!
We decided to leave the very heavy antique upright piano for the next owners. It had come through our family but sadly none of us are able to take it. We had tried to donate it to local non-profit groups and a few country churches. I learned to play “Happy Birthday” and “Rock of Ages” on it.
One morning in 1989, my father left early for work before I had risen to tell him bye as I was flying back to CT that day. So I left him a penciled note saying bye on his shower head wall. Imagine my surprise the next visit when I realized he had never erased it. This started the tradition of me leaving a note on my last day of every visit for almost thirty years. The notes continue on the side walls and except for one from a cousin, they were all from me. The morning that I took my final shower here, I took photographs instead of leaving a final note.
The morning I left, my brother-in-law removed the mattress and springs that I had been sleeping on. Now my parent's house is completely empty. While pulling out of the driveway to return to CT, I took this photograph. In the side rearview mirror, you can see the mailbox and newspaper tube where many years ago I had placed plants circling them that included a rock border.
I returned to CT in my father’s 2000 GMC pickup and when I left, there were only 37 miles to go before the odometer would turn over to 100,000 miles. I was very deep in thought and missed the event! It was 260 miles pass when I realized it. Last year, I turned my 2004 Volvo station wagon over to 100,000.
I’ve been through Maryland countless times but never through the small western section that abuts West Virginia and Pennsylvania. What a beautiful area! I showed this photograph to P who said “Come on, it’s a painting.”
I then showed the photographs where I had cut the above from and watched P’s surprise.
I couldn’t wait to get back home! Back home? I have spent almost three months of the last year working on their houses. My house that I have owned for thirty-one years in Connecticut has suddenly become my only home. Since returning back here three weeks ago, this house has become my real rock and my roots are growing around it. Though this house might not be my home at some point in the future.
I brought Kentucky back home with me. The cast iron fence section came from my mother’s yard as well as the two tree roots and various plants. The plant on the right was peeking out from under a bench so I rescued it.
The plant is actually a tree that I’ll plant in my yard. I do not know the name but this is part of the seedpods on its mother.
I always admired this large unusual stone that came from my father’s farm. I brought it back with me plus the two stones on the front left that also came from his farm. The stone on the right front was my brother’s from when he lived in Hawaii and he didn’t want it! Bricks stacked on the left were from my parents yard and the single brick on the right from my grandmother’s.
I filled two large boxes with magnolia branches that I had cut from my grandmother’s tree. I wrote a diary about using the branches each year to make my Christmas wreath —www.dailykos.com/.... . Sadly this will be the last year that I’ll be able to get any.
The old carved wooden door latch has written on its backside in my mother’s writing that it came from her great grandfather’s house. The arrowheads and old marbles belonged to my grandmother. She found the arrowheads in the field next to the creek where I go fossil hunting and next to the one room school where she taught. I let my siblings have all of the marbles and arrowheads except for these.
I happened to be with my mother when she removed the above latch from her great grandfather’s house. With the owner’s permission, we went back in a field to explore it. Remarkably it was still standing and was being used to store farm equipment and part for farm animals. I took the below latch at that time from the pantry door. I didn’t remove the old paint and it presently holds a closet door shut in my library.
These two beautiful cats were an award that my father received in elementary school for perfect attendance. (early 1940s) They now purr above my kitchen windows.
I had been missing all my babies so it was great to see them all again.
Here Roscoe is demanding that Lucy gets out of his bed. Lucy’s eyes are asking me to please help her
Lucy always obeys Roscoe and quickly moved back to her own bed. The UK pillow was brought back from my parents plus the two legs you see on the upper left is a Teddy bear that use to be mine. Lucy now takes them with her around the house.
Kenny Jose’s world is always upside down when I’m away.
Sadly my friends visiting for the summer will soon be gone with the first frost
and my little buddy that has been living around my water garden this summer will also disappear
A Trader Joe’s just opened close to my house. During my first visit, we were having a thunderstorm. As I went to the door to leave, an employee handed me this bouquet of sunflowers and said she hoped it would bring sunshine to me on this dreary day. Indeed they did.
It’s great to be back home. For this old sentimental guy, it’s true - home is where the heart is.