"LONG ROAD HOME"
You know the saying; "There's no place like home.
I thought long and hard about that phrase as I took a trip back home to attend my Aunts funeral recently.
I grew up in Wilson City, Missouri, population 212 surrounded by corn and soybean fields.
I rented a car at the St.Louis airport and was on my 150 mile long road home. Its not a bad two and a half hour drive, straight down I-55 South. This is gonna sound weird to some, but I always smile when I hit Benton, Missouri, which is about 20 minutes from my sisters house in Charleston. I smile because a warm summer breeze lifts the thick smell of cows and horses into the air. It's a familiar smell that lets me know I'm almost there.
I don't get all the way to Wilson City very often, since my Mom moved away to Jefferson City, Missouri several years ago.
I was struck by all the delightful sights and sounds I had stored away in my memory.
There was the young fresh corn stalks sprouting for miles and miles. I had walked these fields picking corn for days and days, year after year since I was ten years old. The tractors were plowing the soybean fields, kicking up dirt twenty feet high. I reminisce about the 10 hour days my sisters and I spent working, chopping soybeans to help my Mom provide for us. I just kept smiling as I got closer to my sisters home in Charleston. Its about 5 miles from where we grew up.
My sisters and I couldn't wait to go to Boomland in Charleston. It's a local truck stop\fireworks store\burger joint, arts and crafts, groceries and anything else you might want.
Charleston is also where I went to High School, so imagine my shock when I ran into one of my English teachers, who I hadn't seen since I graduated high school at 17!
Ms. McCullough and I relived the days when I was so shy and hardly said a word in class. My how times have changed she said, "My Romona, who I couldn't get two words out of is now an anchorwoman in the big city."
There really is no place like home, I thought on my drive back to the airport. Cleveland is my home now and I love it here tremendously, but that down home upbringing in Missouri helped to shape the woman I've become today. I feel its part of why I can give and share so much of myself with my community.
I was reminded during my long drive home of just how much struggle, hard work and dedication it takes sometimes to make it in this world and if you're lucky, someone will share a glimpse of their long road home with you.
I thought long and hard about that phrase as I took a trip back home to attend my Aunts funeral recently.
I grew up in Wilson City, Missouri, population 212 surrounded by corn and soybean fields.
I rented a car at the St.Louis airport and was on my 150 mile long road home. Its not a bad two and a half hour drive, straight down I-55 South. This is gonna sound weird to some, but I always smile when I hit Benton, Missouri, which is about 20 minutes from my sisters house in Charleston. I smile because a warm summer breeze lifts the thick smell of cows and horses into the air. It's a familiar smell that lets me know I'm almost there.
I don't get all the way to Wilson City very often, since my Mom moved away to Jefferson City, Missouri several years ago.
I was struck by all the delightful sights and sounds I had stored away in my memory.
There was the young fresh corn stalks sprouting for miles and miles. I had walked these fields picking corn for days and days, year after year since I was ten years old. The tractors were plowing the soybean fields, kicking up dirt twenty feet high. I reminisce about the 10 hour days my sisters and I spent working, chopping soybeans to help my Mom provide for us. I just kept smiling as I got closer to my sisters home in Charleston. Its about 5 miles from where we grew up.
My sisters and I couldn't wait to go to Boomland in Charleston. It's a local truck stop\fireworks store\burger joint, arts and crafts, groceries and anything else you might want.
Charleston is also where I went to High School, so imagine my shock when I ran into one of my English teachers, who I hadn't seen since I graduated high school at 17!
Ms. McCullough and I relived the days when I was so shy and hardly said a word in class. My how times have changed she said, "My Romona, who I couldn't get two words out of is now an anchorwoman in the big city."
There really is no place like home, I thought on my drive back to the airport. Cleveland is my home now and I love it here tremendously, but that down home upbringing in Missouri helped to shape the woman I've become today. I feel its part of why I can give and share so much of myself with my community.
I was reminded during my long drive home of just how much struggle, hard work and dedication it takes sometimes to make it in this world and if you're lucky, someone will share a glimpse of their long road home with you.
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posted by Romona at
7:59 PM
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