I spent some time driving around the countryside where my parents grew up. I had two of my kids with me as well as my parents. I enjoy these jaunts to the past.
We stopped by many family landmarks, the farm where my grandparents lived for many years, the place they moved when my mother was a teenager was one such place. The house itself has been empty for about six years. It is slowly deteriorating. I have such wonderful memories of all the time I spent there but it’s hard to imagine that it’s the same place. There’s not much left in the house and my grandparents are gone…it’s simply not the same.
We drove by several farms where my dad lived as a child/young man. Although the houses were either no longer standing or replaced altogether it was cool to listen to him tell about them as we drove by.
We stopped and saw the church where my parents were married. I’ve seen it before, countless times over the years but not with my kids, so that was a good thing… time has a rhythm all its own.
We always include a stop at one of the many cemeteries where relatives have been laid to rest. It’s just what we do. Not sure why this is, however, while we stopped for lunch in a small-town eatery, I heard someone at the table next to us telling the waitress they were in town looking for a cemetery. Good to know we’re not alone in this oddity. The cemetery of choice for the day was the place where my dad’s parents are buried.
As we were ending our stops and turning the car toward home we drove by the farm where my dad’s parents lived when I was a child. I couldn’t believe it was the same house! In my mind’s eye it sat back off the road more. The trees were gone.The barn was gone and the pond dried up long ago but how can that possibly be the same place I visited so often as a child? How does that happen?
It was all good even with the memory blurs. What holds true in every case is that time stands still for no one. I will continue to visit those places in my mind and every now and then take a journey back in time just to see how it’s changed.
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