MY STORY STARTED HERE AND LIVES ON, NO MATTER HOW FAR I ROAM

   Last weekend, I went back in time.........back to the Ohio suburb in which I was not only born, but lived the happiest childhood any child could ever have.  I felt like I was back in the safe cocoon that enveloped me so many years ago.  My younger brother and I both moved away many years ago and have raised our families in different parts of the country, so we are the most sentimental of the four siblings.  When we go back, we are armed with cameras, heading back to our childhood home, elementary and high schools, to capture the images one more time. Our two older siblings still live there, so they don't feel the same pull that we do to travel backwards.  Neither does my friend, whom I've known since I was 5 years old and who used to walk back and forth to school with me everyday.  I asked her if she felt any nostalgia and she shook her head and said, "not really."  You know why?  She still lives in the same home in which she grew up!!  She even has the same phone number! (And I still remember it, which is even more amazing!) How many other people do you know that have done that?  She is the only one that I know!  So, everytime I go back to see her, as soon as I walk into her house, I feel like I'm a kid again!  I love that!
    My best friend from high school and I went out to lunch one day and had a long talk about modern technology and how we both feel it's getting to be too much for us.  While I was out of town, I never even checked my email.  That would be blasphemous to my kids, but to me, it was so liberating!  I just seemed to melt right back into that safe cocoon of home, memories and being surrounded by my best friends and siblings.  They are all healthy, happy and safe.  May it always be so.
    It's a rare occurrence that my siblings and I get to spend quality time together, without our kids or grandkids. This was one of those times.  We stayed up late every night, talking and laughing until tears rolled down our cheeks.  I felt like I was at a sibling slumber party.  What fun!!  Then, we would start out each day, walking together, in the old neighborhood.  We would say, "Such and such lived there.  Whatever happened to them?" Or "I thought our driveway had a much higher incline that that.  How did we sled down it the way we did?"  I think my sister-in-law, a native Floridian, was probably bored out of her mind, but she's been in the family long enough to have been a great sport to listen to our constant reminiscing!
    All in all, those few days put me back to a much simpler time, where friends, family, school and home were my whole world and it was awesome.  Don't get the wrong idea.  I love my adult life, too, especially because my kids are my reason for being (!), but every once in awhile, it's good to go back in time and realize that you are who you are today, because of where you came from.  And I came from a pretty cool place!  Thank you, Mom and Dad!!