I grew up in a small farming town called Howell in Michigan and for most of my younger years felt the time for me to get away from that town could not come fast enough. The pace of life was slow to me and it seemed nothing in the town changed. I at the time did not know just how lucky I was to have been brought up were I had and that I would miss the slow paced life once it was gone. Funny that the town was growing before my eyes but I did not notice the changes. I did not notice the changes until I had gotten away for a few years and when I returned that is when I realized just how much it had changed. Much like people who we see each day we never notice the changes or that they are aging before our eyes. Most parents will think to them selves when attending their child's graduation from High School how did they grow up so fast?
I had been away from my small town for about seven years being in the Army and stationed in Germany. Although I had visited my parents now and then on leave from the Army in those seven years I did not notice the changes until I moved back and drove through the town. Many buildings had been torn down and new buildings had been built. Familiar stores were closed and new ones had taken their place. In some ways it saddened me like I had lost something of myself. While in Town I would see people I had grown up knowing and think to myself boy they have aged not realizing so had I. For some reason when I looked in the mirror I still could see the same person and did not notice that I also had aged.
I remember while growing up I thought I wanted to live in some big city were there is always something going on and the constant bustling of people coming and going were the night life was lit up and many places never closed. Stores that stayed open past 6:oo or 8:00 as was not the norm in my small town we used to joke about them rolling the sidewalks up at 6:00 in the evening so if you needed anything you better get it before then or you would be out of luck. Funny my perception of things I did not know of and how I had built the image in my mind to be something better than what I had been used to.
I did move to a big city in the late 1980's Pittsburgh Pa and for a while I liked it and was in awe of how different it was from living in a small town. I was no stranger to being in the big city by this time living in Germany and spending a lot of time in Mannheim or some of the other big cities there. The difference is this would be my first time living and working in a large city. I in no way would want to put down Pittsburgh because it could have been any big city that I lived in I would never feel as if I fit in or felt at home. My preconceived notions of what it was to live and work in a big city was not what I found it to actually be. I remember after a long time in the city going to school to work and then home everyday I noticed I had not felt grass on my bare feet for a long time. My Mom had told me a story of when she had moved from West Virginia to Toledo and she would often take off her shoes and walk in the yards that had grass. I guess I did not understand her story truly until I myself had not been able to walk barefooted through the grass. I found myself walking the long way home each day just so I could pass through a park and kick my shoes off and feel the grass under my feet. Funny how small things like that mean so much when you are not able to do them.
I moved around a lot over the years and had a chance to see different places and meet people from all over the world. I enjoyed that time but never landed in any other place that I felt as at home as I did when I would come home to the town I grew up in. I heard it said someplace that things should grow where they are planted I took that as Dorthy returning from OZ saying if I ever go looking for my hearts desire I will not look farther than my own backyard. Sound hokey? I am sure it does but all I know is I never felt more at home than I did the day I returned to the area I grew up in and drove down a few old familiar back roads and could see open fields or forests that seemed to stretch on forever. Our Town is not backwoods by any means and has changed a lot over the years but it has never grown so big as to lose its small town charm. I am sure I build the town up to be more than it is but it is my town and it is in my blood and try as I might I can never shake it.
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