Monday, July 05, 2010

This is not about politics, it's about me...

No, I'm not going anywhere, just a little tale of making a pilgrimage.  If you're not interested, go and watch the pretty badgers dance.

After having written about Weiner a few days ago, I realized that I had not been there in several years.  In fact, I've been there only once since we buried Dad seven years ago.  So, with a day off, I headed out for Weiner after breakfast.  Thanks to I-55 & what will be I-555 (US 63), I got there right after 12 noon, and drove around the town, winding up, of course, at my parents and grandparents' graves.

(Remember, you can always skip out; if you don't like badgers, here are some nice llamas.)

After visiting the graveyard, I drove around the town and it confirmed that little has changed in the 40 years since I moved away.  It remains the only town from which I moved that I cried about when I left; I never imagined that I would ever leave there.  Oops.

The downtown is little to nothing on the west side of the Cotton Belt tracks, as it has been since the late 70s; people either shop for groceries at Fowler's, or drive 20 miles to Jonesboro, as we did when I was a child.   After a while, I left and went to Jonesboro.

After a stop or two to get a magazine (football, people, FOOTBALL), I left to come home.  I stopped in Trumann to look at the house that had belonged to my family from 1973 until I sold it in 2005; the people who live there now had taken down the fences and chopped down the trees my grandfather had planted shortly after moving in.  Somehow, I didn't bother me; I drove on after a short pause.

I think of all I had in Arkansas that is now gone; yet it just brings home the fact that Memphis is and will be my home, it's where I have put down roots.

In the long run, that is a much-needed comfort.

2 comments:

callmeishmael said...

Well said. Journeys for us middle aged types are more and more necessary.

captainkona said...

The Llama Song almost gave me convulsions....just about to call 911....monkeys are flying out of my ears......Demi, you musn't do it, Demi...........

(snap, crackle, pop)

Whew. Savin' that vid for the next load of shrooms. I think it altered my body chemistry.

Wait, what was the question?