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October 09, 2005

Goodbye Home

This was the home I grew up in. It had its flaws, but it was home. The sidewalk was crooked but it gave it character. We moved there in March of 1976, I was nearly nineteen months old. I left in August 1992 to go to Baylor. You can take the girl out of Houston but you can't take Houston out of the girl.

I always knew no matter how long I'd stay gone, that I could get in my car, drive down thru the masses of Aggies on Hwy 6, grab US 290 over to 610 East, hook a left on I10 and find my way home. In 1999, I smartened up. I finished my seven year stint in Waco and I moved as close to Houston as I could get. I knew this little house was still just on the other side of town.

In 2001, two things happened. First, Tropical Storm Allison decided to flood most of Houston. My mother, was in Waco with my grandparents that weekend and my father was stuck at home with Char Cole, and I was out in Smalltown, Tx ... watering my yard and wishing that some of that rain could have landed on my slightly brown yard.

My mother had been complaining about Houston for the past 25 years and had been dreaming about moving back to her home and to be closer to her parents in Waco. Our house was the 11th house built in our neighborhood by Fox & Jacobs and since our neighborhood was surrounded by Greens Bayou, they made significant strides to prove to the original few buyers that their homes would not flood. After the neighborhood was established, they quit trying so hard. Our street was one of the few in the neighborhood that did not sustain any damage at all because of the Great Flood of 2001.

The second thing that happened in 2001, a short two weeks after Allison, was that we lost my Grandmother. Grandmommie died on June 20th and that was about the last thing I knew of holding my dad to Houston. After she was gone, he too was ready for a change.

Four years ago today, it was a Tuesday and I woke up in my house for the last time. I woke up and got ready for school, hugged my parents and Char Cole by, and about 6:30am with tears in my eyes I walked down that crooked sidewalk for the last time. The movers came about 9:00am loaded up everything in that house and moved them to Waco.

I cried all the way to school that day. I taught my classes, went by my house in Smalltown, packed my suitcase for the rest of the week & weekend and drove to Waco. I had a Advance Placement Conference in Dallas that Thursday - Saturday and I took Wednesday off to go help them get the new house ready. I made it to my parents' new home in Waco not long before midnight and most of the big stuff was unpacked and my parents and my baby brother were there, but it wasn't home. I don't think it ever will be.

It has also been a year and 5 days since I have been to Houston. I miss Houston. Houston is home. But it is a weird feeling. You drive into town, grab US 290 like you did so many years ago and you get that exciting feeling of being home, yet... you have no where to go anymore. That key on your keychain doesn't unlock any doors anymore.

You wonder why my last post said that my inner child was sad? Well, my current living quarters are in Dallas, but it isn't home. My parents and my two furr-babies are in Waco, and that really isn't home. And Houston is home, but I don't seem to fit in there anymore.

Posted by FutureFoodTVStar at October 9, 2005 02:35 PM

Comments

Posted by: Kami at October 9, 2005 09:05 PM

Posted by: SillyNessa at October 10, 2005 09:11 AM

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