(I said "part one" because I only have 25 minutes to blog right now and I have much more to say about my hometown!)
Greetings blog world! I just returned from the Texas PTA Summer conference in Austin and my 20th High School Reunion in San Angelo last night. Today is the last day of summer Mother's Day Out for all three kids and Rhett's first morning of Baylor Biddie Ball Camp. Nothing like coming back to hit the ground running! But I want to take some time to reflect on our trip an ask some of you what you think about going home and hometowns in general. But first things first.
PTA
I am so BLESSED to be a part of a very fun and active group of PTA officers this year! I'm very excited to work with all these ladies. We have so much fun together and we have so many ideas. I'm hoping our energy and zest for the year will rub off on the entire PTA board and the whole school. Our trip to Austin was a great bonding experience and I hope we came back with some strategies and concrete plans of action to get our year started right! It's so great to be part of a group that is really excited and ready to do great things!
San Angelo.
I'll talk about the 20th reunion in another post. Right now I just want to talk about my home town. I need to explain that I have not been back to my hometown for over 9 years. This is the town I lived in from 9 months of age until I married Rob at age 26. Growing up I thought I would never go more than a few weeks or maybe months with out being in San Angelo. So the fact that it has been 9 years since I have been "home" is crazy to me! What happened? I grew up and things changed. My parents moved away from San Angelo when I was pregnant with Kolby. I have no family there. We went back a few times right after Kolby was born for weddings and funerals, but nothing in 9 years.
Of course San Angelo has changed a lot in 9 years, as I would have expected it to. Some changes are good. New restaurants, new schools, new hotels, new highways and roads. There is a great new family center at my home church, Johnson Street C Of C.
But some changes were sad to see... The site of my old elementary school boarded up and abandoned with weeds growing knee high almost brought me to tears. The old "drag" on Sherwood Way was a very sad sight. Boarded up businesses, the street in need of repair, businesses that boomed when I was in High School have gone under and nothing has taken their places. The Village Shopping Center, which once housed bustling businesses, clothing stores and a movie theater, now only had one store I recognized. There were a few other cheenchy looking stores, but it was mostly just abandoned buildings. I have so many memories in that shopping center dating way back to when I was 3 or 4 years old all the way up until I bought the dress I wore to our rehearsal dinner. It was sad to see this center so run down. AND I don't even want to talk about what our old houses looked like! Both the Rice and Tabossa house looked sad and in need of love! How could anyone treat "my" houses that way!? Didn't they know how cozy they were and how much we loved them? And BROWN. I don't remember San Angelo as being so brown! Not that Waco is a lush oasis or anything, but I was taken back by all the brown grass. Was it always like that?
Still, I loved being "home". I surprised myself by crying as I drove into town. I've really missed San Angelo. It felt good to be where things are familiar and much of my history was made. I loved going to church and still knowing so many people. I loved running into people we knew everywhere we went. I loved eating great Mexican food (although my favorite place was closed for vacation! The NERVE!!!) and only driving 5 minutes to get anywhere. I loved seeing friends who I have not seen in so long but who I could talk with like I had just seen them yesterday. San Angelo fit me like well worn glove, a little tattered, but it felt great!
The great thing is that Rob shares my love for San Angelo. Rob lived in San Angelo from first grade to fourth grade. (I didn't know him then.) Since he grew up in the military, if you include his four years at ASU, Rob actually lived in San Angelo longer than he had lived anywhere before we married. We had a contest to see who knew the most people at MY reunion. I won, but just barely!
Rob asked me if I thought we could ever live in San Angelo again? I'm not sure how to answer that. I have a feeling I could, but I know it isn't the same place where I grew up. It would not be the same. Besides we have a good thing going here where we are with all my family. Rob loves his job. We have great friends. Our kids are happy... Still, if the right job were to come along...
So let me ask you, how would you feel about living in your hometown again? Or if you do live in the town you grew up in, do you like it? Is it weird to raise your kids where you were raised or do you love it? It may be different if you lived in a thriving town. I don't think San Angelo is thriving. I want to hear back from you on this. REALLY! Because I'm just wondering...
More on this subject later. Right now I'm off to get some boys from camp and take them to MDO. Hope you are having a great Tuesday!
P.S. I don't know if you are listening to the music, but the first song on my playlist is Third Day's "San Angelo." It really resonates with me for obvious reasons. I have no idea if they are talking about my San Angelo or what the story is behind this song. I just know this song speaks for me and to me. I hope you like it!
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10 comments:
I did most of my growing up in Abilene (5th grade-college)....and yes, I could absolutely live there again. But not in the stage of life I am in now....I wouldn't mind raising a family there at all. Course, I do enjoy the city more than the rest of my family, so I could see staying here also....
Hey girl,
This is very random, but I was looking for a personalized gift and ran across a website www.anythingjoes.com and they had personalized little lockers that were CD holders. Have no idea if they are cute but looked cute from the pic. Just thought of you when I saw it! Love keeping up with your wonderful family. Miss you in Fort Worth. You can move back here:) Lauren Thompson
I am living in my hometown! It's true that it's not the same. Not at all. But I love it! Every once in awhile, I'll be leaving my parents' house, 3 kids in tow, and I have these flashbacks...riding my bike all over...countless sleepovers with friends...standing on that same porch on my first date...sneaking out the window to go hang out with the youth group (how backwards is that?). I just think...back then, I would have NEVER been able to imagine that one day I would be taking my 3 kids to that same house, same swimming pool, same everything.
I hope that when we get to heaven, we get to watch old "videos" of our life's favorite memories! :)
Awwww, you talking about Sna Angelo brings back memories. We lived there for about 18 months. I used to work at Sugarbakers and The Registry. Cassidy was born there, but then we moved when she was 3 months old to Plano. I miss the mexican food restaurant we went to all the time- Mejor Que Nada. The best cheese enchiladas!
I am now living in my former hometown and love it! It is very different than when I grew up. I lived in the city of Austin growing up and now I live in a suburb. The neighborhood I grew up in is not what it used to be. My parents will probably move soon, closer to us. But living here as an adult has been great! Our family does more than what we used to do growing up. My mom was not that adventurous, so I have fallen in love with a whole "new" part of Austin. It is like rediscovering it!
My hometown is not the same town I grew up in, either. When I lived in Katy, it was pretty much the end of the Katy Freeway (I-10)- there was not much there. All of the streets dead ended. When I went to college, not many people had even heard of Katy, TX. Now it has every store and restaurant you can imagine..and Katy Mills Mall and TRAFFIC and TONS OF PEOPLE! I could live there, but it is NOT the same, and I don't think my kids would have the same quality of life I did growing up, or that we enjoy here.
I love living in my hometown. I love taking my kids to all the places I "used" to go and watching them discover the same things I enjoyed. They really like that when they go to Nana's or Memaw's they can picture Mama or Daddy as little kids there. I also like knowing my town inside and out, driving anywhere in 10 minutes, seeing someone you know everywhere you go...I can't imagine living anywhere else but as you said - if the right job offer came along... You gotta stay open to God's opportunities, right?
I grew up IN the city of Chicago & I absolutely would NOT move back there. I LOVED growing up there, but things have changed for the worse. Besides, the city (and the world) seemed so small to me back then, but it's WAY too big a city for me to be in now.
I don't know...Plano, Texas. I feel so far removed from there living in the Southwest now. I have great memories of living there and it's cheaper to live there than here by far. I miss so many people that I could see all the time there again. Honestly, I could live anywhere with my family of four. Very interesting thinking about it!!!
No, I would not go back and live in the town I grew up in. In the 80's it was thriving and "swelled" to about 16,000 people. But as you probably know, I am living in my parents' hometown, my second hometown in a way. I can remember coming here as a kid and walking to the neighborhood store for a candy bar. I remember many holidays with grandparents and cousins here. I even ended up going to college here. I actually have more roots here than in the town I think of as my hometown. I love it here. It is not the same samll town that is used to be either. It is growing by leaps and bounds.
I always heard people say "you can't go home" but did not get it. Maybe I get it now, although San Angelo still feels a little like home. I will always love San Angelo because it was home and no matter how it changes, the memories of my youth spent there remain the same. HOWEVER I left San Angelo this week wondering if it is a city in decline. It's so far from any other big city. It's off the beaten path. No interstate.
Another big part for me is that my family is no longer there. Most people who still live in their hometowns have family near. All my family is here. No, I don't see us returning to San Angelo, but I would never say never! :)
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