Home

This was written first in 1992. There are some changes that I will write about at a later date. The left photo is of the little white house I grew up in many years ago. The right photo is of me in my condo.

It is strange how "home" evolves. I grew up in a small town in southwestern Kansas. The only house I remember is the little white house we moved the family of three boys, our parents, and me into. This small house with the front porch where I watched the world go by remains "home" in my heart. It remained home until 1955 when I married. Other places have become home over the years.

There was an apartment and a small house in Junction City that was home for a while. There was another small house in Odgen, KS; another apartment in Junction City that was home for Patti and me. Then we moved to Iowa and lived in a story-and-a-half rental house for a while.

About a year passed before we bought a house in Marion, IA, that was home to us and Patti and Tony. That house was "home" for twenty years. The children grew up there. The transformation from young married to having grown children occurred in this house.

My address changed as I moved into a very small apartment located in Marion. I remained there for eight years. It was small but secure and really only a place for me to sleep and return to at the end of the day. I don't believe it ever became "home" because I always referred to it as "the apartment."

I moved to Cedar Rapids December 18, 1989 - a move that I thought I would never make. Somehow I thought Marion would remain my place of residence forever. This changed when I moved into a condo on the northeast side of Cedar Rapids.

As I drove to my home, the trees and buildings make me feel a bit hostalgic. I loved the condo. It really became "home" for me. I found contentment and serenity in that lovely place that had my own personal stamp on it.

The summer of 1990, I returned to southwestern Kansas revisiting the little white house with the porch where I lived during my childhood. My mother, brothers and I walked through the empty house. I discovered it was just a house that was waiting for someone to come live in it to make it a "home" again. I also found that the "home" I lived in while growing up is always available to me because it lives in my heart.