powerlines in Ohio
back roads to Smethport, PA
vintage Mobile gas sign near Wadsworth, OhioAll photos by Elaine A. Russell
I've been thinking alot lately. I remember the phrase "you can't go home again..."
I always interpreted it in the context of how things change. Buildings, homes, roads.. etc. Places and objects that are etched in your memory.. that are never the same as what you remember from your youth.
It is true. My home town (population 2000 --including cows)... has certainly changed over the years. New businesses have come and gone like people change their socks. Homes change their appearance. We actually have a McDonald's now in town. And there are 2 traffic lights now in the main part of town... both of which go to blinking yellow after 6pm.
Some things don't change. There is still only one theater... only open on the weekends. One bowling alley... that has definitely seen better days. 13 bars, 13 churches (you gotta have these things balanced).
I've been thinking that the phrase means so much more. More on a human level. How people change over the years. Sometimes it's for the better, sometimes it's not. I've run into several people from high school. The only reunion I have been to was my 10th reunion. I just haven't been able to get back for the others. It occurred to me that I have been out of school for 27 years. Seems impossible. On one hand, it seems like only yesterday, and in many others.. a lifetime ago.
People seem so different, and yet, so much like they were too. It's a strange paradox.
And then I noticed how very different.. and yet, how very much the same members of my family are. Life and circumstance have changed us all in different ways.
I think I am beginning to finally like who I have become.