Who Says You Can't Go Home?

This past weekend was a flying trip, but much needed.  I enjoyed my time in St. Louis, and I enjoyed the short visit I had in my hometown.  I haven't been home since September 2011, when I went to my high school reunion.  It's just hard for me to get away now between pet sitting, singing on the praise team at church, and traveling around with Durant.  Plus, I don't have any family at "home" anymore, so I really just don't make it back there much.  Most of my friends have moved away except for a few, and it's always hard trying to coordinate schedules to meet up there.  Life just happens to all of us.  I think when you graduate from high school, you know things are going to be a little different, but I don't think you realize HOW different until you get older.  Your friends start getting married, having kids and families of their own with busy schedules.  Nothing stays the same.  I don't feel like I've been out of school for 20 plus years, it just seems like yesterday that I was walking across the stage to get my diploma on that hot, sweltering night in May of 1991. But after that happened, things have just never been the same.  My entire class went separate ways.  To college in other states, to jobs, to getting married, to join the military, etc.  There are times that high school seems like an eternity ago, and yet in other ways, it feels like yesterday.  So as I was home this past weekend just for a short time, I was able to go to several areas of town where so many of my memories still remain.  Houses I used to live in, driving by my grandparents house where many holidays with family were spent, driving by the schools I attended from Kindergarten through High School, the church where I grew up and was baptized in, visiting with former neighbors who were neighbors for 30 years and are more like family than friends.  As I was at their house visiting, I couldn't help but think of all the fun things I used to do in their house as well as outside in that neighborhood.  Sometimes I wonder how I didn't get hurt by some of the dumb stuff I did. Trying to do tricks on skateboards and bikes, having a firecracker blow up in my face while I was lighting it, racing bikes and almost having a head on collision with one of the neighbor kids. To this day, only God allowed us to miss each other because there wasn't a half inch between our handle bars. I will never forget that moment as I saw my life flash before my eyes.  Then there were the moments of playing ball in the yard, getting yelled at by the little old ladies around the neighborhood to "get out of my yard."  The times I went roller skating on the sidewalk to the corner and back, riding Big Wheels, walking around the neighborhood with our boom boxes turned up as loud as they would go because that was the cool thing to do in the 80's, you know. Playing hours and hours of Atari, break dancing on cardboard in the front yard.  HAHA! Yes, there's a picture for you in your head of ME trying to break dance.  It's the place where I learned to ride a bike when I was 5, the place where many pictures were taken on the front steps of our old house on the first day of school, graduations, Homecomings and Proms.  So many memories flood my mind from that little town. There wasn't much to do in a small town, so the biggest thrill for my friends and I was when we turned 16 and got our Driver's License.  We were able to cruise the streets and "be cool".  I still know the route, cruise up Main Street to McDonalds, back down Delaware through the park, and back to Main Street. It was a continuous loop that we would drive for hours it seemed.  Wonder how much gas we wasted back then? Of course gas was significantly cheaper in the 80's and early 90's compared to today.  I had my share of bad times in that little town, but my good times far outweigh the bad.  So, maybe I don't live there anymore, but who says you can't go home?  I felt right at home when I was there the other day...and DiMaggio's Pizza is STILL the best pizza around! Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane with me. Sometimes it's fun to be nostalgic.  God Bless!