Will and I recently traveled back to my home town of Hilliard for a family reunion. We stayed with my parents in Fernandina and made the trip to Hilliard on Saturday. Traveling that back road from Fernandina to Hilliard always brings back lots of memories. I remember taking driver’s ed classes on that road and scaring Mr. Turvey to death. I remember laying in the back of Daddy’s truck with my cousins and friends, while traveling to the beach, and singing “Islands in the Stream” at the top of our lungs.
We passed the air traffic control center which hasn’t changed a bit, and took a right shortly thereafter to visit my grandparents (The Chapman’s) first. Their house looks exactly the same and I love to go there. It has most of the same furniture, pictures….even refrigerator magnets. It is comforting to sit as a family in the living room where we have sat many times to catch up.
My youngest niece rocked in a rocking chair that belonged to my grandmother as a child, while Will showed my other two nieces all the pictures of our family that my grandparents have collected over the years. They are displayed on their wall in the den and most have been there for decades.
After we left my grandparents, we went up to the red light and took a right by Flash Foods. I remembered that I used to think Flash Foods was so named because our school mascot was the Flashes. Will got a good laugh about that one.
It’s strange how most things in Hilliard haven’t changed…a good thing. But, while we were traveling down Andrews Road, I did comment to Will that I remembered when that was a dirt road. I vividly remember flying into the ditch one day on my way to school and I very much remember not being able to get out. I also remember getting a little lecture from Mrs. Copps about it. I deserved it.
We took a right off of Andrew’s and headed to my aunt’s. My aunt and uncle have lived on the same piece of land forever and a day. We have had many get togethers out there in those woods. Talking about the good ‘ol days was great.
My cousin, Kristy and I, like to talk about the time we crawled out of a window in her trailer in the middle of the night and snuck out to her pond for a swim that was cut short by our fear of snakes. To get out of the window was difficult as we had quite a drop to the ground. We have often wondered why we didn’t just use the front door!
I love to hear all of the old stories from our family’s past and I always learn something new when we get together. I learned that Mama could tie a cherry stem into a knot with her teeth as a teenager. I learned that one of the older family members used to throw firecrackers in his house just for laughs. And, I learned that my Grandfather Nelson used to make the best sweet tea in the South. I wish I could ask him for the recipe.
The family has grown. As a few of us stood in the yard talking, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that all of the kids were running around laughing together. The next generation…I laughed as I remembered myself and all of us cousins at that age. I could see our faces in theirs and wished for a second that we were all that young again.
Even though everyone lives all over the place, gas is too high, and it takes an act of congress for everyone to get off work at once, we all know that there will be other get togethers and we’ll look forward to when we meet up again…down home.
We passed the air traffic control center which hasn’t changed a bit, and took a right shortly thereafter to visit my grandparents (The Chapman’s) first. Their house looks exactly the same and I love to go there. It has most of the same furniture, pictures….even refrigerator magnets. It is comforting to sit as a family in the living room where we have sat many times to catch up.
My youngest niece rocked in a rocking chair that belonged to my grandmother as a child, while Will showed my other two nieces all the pictures of our family that my grandparents have collected over the years. They are displayed on their wall in the den and most have been there for decades.
After we left my grandparents, we went up to the red light and took a right by Flash Foods. I remembered that I used to think Flash Foods was so named because our school mascot was the Flashes. Will got a good laugh about that one.
It’s strange how most things in Hilliard haven’t changed…a good thing. But, while we were traveling down Andrews Road, I did comment to Will that I remembered when that was a dirt road. I vividly remember flying into the ditch one day on my way to school and I very much remember not being able to get out. I also remember getting a little lecture from Mrs. Copps about it. I deserved it.
We took a right off of Andrew’s and headed to my aunt’s. My aunt and uncle have lived on the same piece of land forever and a day. We have had many get togethers out there in those woods. Talking about the good ‘ol days was great.
My cousin, Kristy and I, like to talk about the time we crawled out of a window in her trailer in the middle of the night and snuck out to her pond for a swim that was cut short by our fear of snakes. To get out of the window was difficult as we had quite a drop to the ground. We have often wondered why we didn’t just use the front door!
I love to hear all of the old stories from our family’s past and I always learn something new when we get together. I learned that Mama could tie a cherry stem into a knot with her teeth as a teenager. I learned that one of the older family members used to throw firecrackers in his house just for laughs. And, I learned that my Grandfather Nelson used to make the best sweet tea in the South. I wish I could ask him for the recipe.
The family has grown. As a few of us stood in the yard talking, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that all of the kids were running around laughing together. The next generation…I laughed as I remembered myself and all of us cousins at that age. I could see our faces in theirs and wished for a second that we were all that young again.
Even though everyone lives all over the place, gas is too high, and it takes an act of congress for everyone to get off work at once, we all know that there will be other get togethers and we’ll look forward to when we meet up again…down home.
3 comments:
Although I'm a member of the family by marriage, your family has always gone out of the way to make me feel like family and have allowed me to have some fond memories as well.
And I remembered how special family is and how much I miss all of ya'll! And I learned something to...Will does a really good impersonation of the "Rainman".....diffinetly.
Well, now I am really homesick!
~Becky Bandy
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