Visiting Former Places...

It seems to me that each place and person we leave carries a place in our lives that we hold onto in our minds. This weekend I went to Arkansas to primarily have the opportunity to see our two youngest at a close of camp Rodeo event. It is a long drive there, almost 9 hours, and then we were not sure we'd see them at all. We did see them, and Madison did great in her horse show, I think they've both grown an inch in six week!
As I drove the interstate, the scenery changed from hillsides with rocks showing and hard wood trees to a thick pine forest, so dense one can hardly see through the trees. As we got there the buildings changed from modern city scapes to a scene from Mayberry RFD. Home....where they know your name....home...where you know from which you came.....yes, the song is true in a country town, your history lives forever.
Where I am from you're considered a "new comer" until your family has been there over 60 years. City folk may come from a place with a population over 1000, and there isn't much consideration for fancy ways.

I was thankful this weekend to see my high school teacher Bill Bacon, who is now an auctioneer. I was thankful to hug the neck of my first employer, Jim Stinson, who family owns a jewelry store that is over a hundred years old. I was thankful to be at the "event" of the weekend, Pittman's annual plant sale, where folks lined up outside the fences for the 8 a.m. 1/2 price plant sale. Food never tastes so good as at Miss Virginia's table, my father's wife. We are thankful for Miss Virginia, for after my mother died, she has so made my father's life better as his wife. I was thankful to see my best friend Bobbie, who had just returned from placing 8th in the United States in a Phi Beta Lamba competition in California and we returned her son Hunter.
There is always a desire to bring home some of "home" for me, and this time I did. We bought a French side chair at the auction, though it wasn't purchased during the auction. I found my beloved black and white polka dot luggage too, for $20! Later, in true Sweetie style, I bartered my way into diamond and peridot earrings by trading the local Pawn Trader an ebay logo designed by me in exchange for the pretty earrings. I came home right proud of that swap (as my hometown friends would say)
Driving back, Dh suprised me with a stay at the Marriott in Vicksburg, MS where we simply relaxed for the evening and spoke of our blessed lives. Long ago I set the goal of a some day we'd be able to afford to stay in a Marriott for the night every now and then and have a night away.....Saturday we lived that after seven years....I felt like the Queen Dh tells me I am.....strangely enough, the cost was only $20 more than Motel 8, but the difference in quality was well over the $20 asking difference....and then they gave us a $25 certificate for breakfast on top of that....and double points towards a free night's stay.
This morning I am home again, finally, and thankful to be so. I will be on the road again by Wednesday to Brentwood. There is so much to be thankful for, and this morning I am even thankful for laundry to do and be done!
hugs hugs hugs!