Going "Home" for a reunion pt. 1

Old Bible class bench that was old when we first moved into this town back in the summer of 1974. I believe a lot of notes were passed on these benches :-)

What does it mean to go "home" when you moved around a lot as a child? This past weekend, we got to go to one of my childhood homes in Missouri, even though the last house we lived in right beside the church building had to be torn down, it was so old and damaged. It was very strange not to see the old house and the new (at the time) two-car garage sitting on the property. Thankfully, I had been warned that it was gone ahead of time.



This is where our house once stood! It was a white, hundred-year-old, two-story house with a little balcony (sans railing however) out in front of my bedroom window on the second floor. Behind me (north) is a large hill that goes down to a major, four-lane divided highway. This being a small town, however, it does not see the traffic that I am used to driving in in our current city. So, the traffic noise was not that bad my sophomore through senior years when we lived there. Our church was growing so much that we had outgrown our small building in town, so we built this one on eight acres, next to an old farmhouse that we got to live in. It had a beautiful banister, was refurbished before we moved in, and Mom had it painted mostly blue on the inside! Upstairs, my room was peach and white, and it was lovely. This view (perhaps a little more to the left, though) was my favorite, as it overlooked the two ponds out back. I had north, east, and south-facing windows. This was basically my view of the church building, as well. The trees were smaller, of course.

Part of our garage would have been in this shot, the propane tank, as well.


Dad and one of my brothers

Greg lived in the house for his senior year. In this shot, they are standing right about where the kitchen table and bay window was, sipping their coffee. Hubby and one of our sons threw a football in our living room and entry way. LOL. I wish I had stopped what I was doing to take pictures of THAT. I was too busy catching up with friends, though. Maybe next time. I wasn't sure that there would be a next time. But everyone agreed that we need to do this again within the next five years.


Another of my brothers is leading singing in this shot. All the guys from our old youth group (circa 1977-1982) led Bible class, preached, prayed, or served at the communion table. My hubby got to be an honorary yg member and help out with these duties, as well. We went an hour overtime, but no one seemed to mind. They handled it well, if they did!




It was special to reconnect with old friends. We did a lot of singing on both Saturday and Sunday.


You can barely spot it, but behind my friend and my brother is a frappuccino bottle. I believe Jo is now hooked on these. I made sure she tried some and bought her her own bottle. She really likes Vanilla, so watch out, Papaw V! She's going to be asking for these regularly :-).

Sunday potluck lunch, filled with more catching up






The old neighborhood isn't quite complete without the old friends there sharing in the memories and reconnecting again.

Going home is as simple as going anywhere that old friends gather, friends who share many memories: educational, silly, fun, crazy, difficult, and now memories of togetherness once more. What made this "going home" more special was spending some time in the comfortable old town with these friends once again.

sunset view that is very similar to the one I used to have from my old house


Wishing you all a summer of safe travels and happy reunions,

Javamom