Home Sweet Home

Did I tell you that I'm going home this weekend?  Quick trip... in fact, we leave this afternoon right around nap time.  The kids won't nap the whole way, but they will a little bit.  And with a three hour drive ahead of us, every little bit helps.

My mom is retiring on June 3rd.  After over 30 years of employment at the U.S. Forest Service, she's finished.  So this weekend is her retirement party.  Sure it's a little early, but with the holiday weekend coming up, she's anxious to celebrate her time at the Forest Service.

While I was there recently, I took a few photos of my hometown.  I grew up in a small Northern California town, population of about 500.  When I was growing up, most of my friends' parents worked in the logging industry.  It's always been a small town, but I love it.  I love the peace and quiet of it all, the predictability of the days, knowing who your neighbors are, playing with cousins, and being surrounded by the outdoors.  My days were spent playing outside, helping my grandma in the garden, swimming in the summer, playing softball, and building forts.

I've had people ask me what I did there... wasn't I bored... didn't I hate growing up in a small town.  I often come away shocked by such conversations.  Until I realized it's a whole other world that most people just don't understand.  I grew up having the ability to entertain myself.  I was outside all the time. And as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate the lessons of preserving and using what we had available to us.

I've often thought of writing a series of post on small town living, but I'm not even sure where I would begin.  It's so engrained in who I am that I often find it hard to look at from an outsider's point of view.  Why wouldn't everyone just understand what it's like to pick blackberries and sell them by the side of the road?  Or how exciting it is to have a mountain lion walk by your front porch?  Or how much fun it is to play in the creek bed on a hot spring afternoon?  All experiences I've had and yet have a hard time putting into words.

So while words fail me, I'll leave you with just a glimpse into the small town that I grew up in:

The small elementary school school that I spent Kindergarten and First Grade in.

The Post Office and Store next door

The bridge that connects both sides of town

The church that I attended and later did schooling from Second Grade through Eighth Grade

So what about you?  What do you remember about your hometown?  Was it small, large, or in between?  What made it special to you?

*Linked to Kelly's Korner