Sometimes you can't go home....

I was raised in Texas. My dad was a police officer so we moved around a bit. When I was little (ages 4 - 7) we lived in Thornton, TX. We lived in a small brick house and then my parents bought a big house across the street. I have very fond memories of that house. My mother had a huge garden that we all took care of. I remember her in the huge kitchen canning all kinds of goodies from the garden. I remember going to kindergarten in the neighboring town, Groesbeck. Today, I took my girls on a road trip so that they could see where I lived when I was their age. I made the trip with the girls, my mother, sister and niece. I was a little excited to show them that I was actually their age once and this is where I played, lived and went to school. As we drove through the very small town, none of it was familiar to me anymore. We turned on the dirt road and traveled past a graveyard....funny, I don't remember living near a graveyard at all! Suddenly, we were at the houses. I am so sad...they don't look like anything that I remember. Sure, over the years, changes were made and I do see a shell of the house that I once lived in, but there were so many things that I did not remember. Was the house really that close to the road? Everything seemed so much bigger and wide open when I was little. There were so many trees and out buildings that were not there before. My memories were way better than reality. My girls could not believe that I once lived here. I couldn't believe that I once lived here.

While I was very disappointed, I decided to carry on and drive to the town were I went to elementary school. So, down the road we went and as we were driving I just could not get over the changes. The town that I remembered so fondly was not the town in present day. The school that I remembered was not the school that I saw today. Yes, it is much older, just like me! Needless to say, my girls were not impressed at all with my childhood home or school.

After today's excursion into the past, I have come to realize that sometimes you can't go home. Sometimes, it is just better to keep your past in the past and cherish the memories.