LEAVING HOME

On my twelfth birthday, my family and I moved into our new home on the west side of Lubbock. We came from Austin, where I was born and completed elementary school.

The move, of course, meant that I was leaving behind all of the friends of my lifetime to that point, and coming to a town where I knew not a soul.

That was rather traumatic for a twelve year old. And so, on our second day, we had a very serious dust storm....called haboobs nowadays. Talk about trauma.

We settled in that summer and I started school at J. T. Hutchinson Junior High that fall. And started making friends, and continued to do so. Many of those original friends are life-long friends. No need for names....they know who they are, and I am afraid if I tried to start naming them I would leave one out.

Except for a brief sojourn away at college and a brief stop in Midland for a year and a half, Lubbock was my home for 62 years. I love Lubbock and the people there. I married my wife there and we had our daughter there, and raised her  until she left for college. Lubbock is/was home.

Times change, however. Our daughter went away for college, and except for a brief boomerang, has returned only for very brief visits.

She now lives in the area just south of Ft. Worth, has a small farm, and a full time job. Because she had so little time to come to Lubbock and visit, and because we wanted to be able to have her in our life much more than had been possible, my wife and I decided to move closer to her, and bought a home near Granbury, Texas.

More trauma! Murphy's Law is alive and well, as we have discovered. The remodeler screwed up, and from then on it seems like everything that could break down, did. Moving to a new place to live is not for sissies, I can tell you.

Of course, we miss all of our dear friends, and that is the sad part. On the other hand, we see our daughter with great frequency, and are able to participate in her life much more than we could before. That makes the whole thing worthwhile.

Otherwise, I would feel like I did when I was twelve coming into a new town.

But enough of that. I hope to blog more....it has been almost a year since the last one. I don't know if anyone is really interested in that, but it gives an elderly guy something to do.