I'm at my parents' in West Virginia right now; drove here late last night on a spur-of-the-moment trip. They're moving to Atlanta after Christmas and this house is full of random stuff and really needs some work! Unfortunately, my stepdad's pulling 16-hour days at work, his health isn't the best, and my mom threw her back out, so it's kind of a tough time for them right now. Since I'm not employed at the moment, I might as well be a good daughter and try to get some work done around the house.
But today was not the day for work! This afternoon I went to my aunt Julie's and took my little cousin Sierra trick-or-treating. I think I had more fun than she did! She's two, she dressed up like a duck, and she was a real trooper for all the walking we did! I got to play mommy and lead her around the same streets I trick-or-treated on as a little girl. I wonder how much time it'll take for it to get all over town that I had a baby? Especially when I didn't? Ha ha...
It's always so strange to come back here to my parents' house. For one thing, I won't have a home to come back to before long, and that hasn't really sunk in for me yet. That'll be hard. But it's more than just the house that's strange for me... it's just being in this little West Virginia town again. I have NEVER fit in here! I remember thinking about that when I was as young as 12 years old. I knew then that if I ever wanted a different life, that I would have to bust my butt in school to be the best in everything to get scholarships so I could go away to school and leave this place behind. That was my plan, and it worked like a charm. I moved to Tennessee when I was barely 17, and except for a few summers between classes, I haven't looked back. This place is stifling! Everybody knows not only who everybody else is, but all of their personal business as well. It's the kind of town where the cheerleaders hang out together until they die, and your social status for your entire life is determined by what you were like in high school. I can look in my parents' high school yearbooks and recognize everybody from the class of 1972 because they were all of my friends' parents! This whole area is so isolated and run-down and at least 10 years behind the rest of the country. Can you tell that I have always hated it? I can't think of anything more miserable than having to live here day after provencial day.
Tonight, however, was nice. I was surprised. People all over town were sitting on their front porches with huge baskets of candy, fawning over the kids and being neighborly. There were families crowded throughout the streets, trick-or-treating and visiting and generally just having a good time. I saw all kinds of people who remembered me when I was Sierra's age and people I went to school with who now have kids of their own. I bumped into my cousin and his wife and kids out on the street. Saw all of my mom's siblings and my grandma at different times throughout the evening. It's comforting, yet confusing. I can't stand this place, yet tonight I was kind of proud of it. All of my family is here, my innocent years were spent here, and like it or not, I will forever be linked to this town. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on it. I've done so much to distance myself from WV, but why? How can I hate a place so much when all of my own blood family loves it here?
I could sit here and write all night! My mom's up, though... I should probably spend some time with her.
