Home for the holidays. This is the time of year where families get together and share memories as well as create new ones. Home can mean many things to many different people, I’m in writing this with the angle of hometown. Everyone has one place in their hearts that they consider their hometown, where they were raised, and to take it a step further, the actual home they were raised in. I was thinking about this recently on my trip home for Thanksgiving. My hometown is Ann Arbor Michigan and my “home” was 1715 Chandler Street. Home for the holidays, what a special meaning it has.
While in town, we did a trip down memory lane, drove all over the streets of Ann Arbor. Visited the high school, elementary school, downtown area, old neighborhoods. As we passed these many houses we talked about names of families that once graced those doors. Best friends, basements we played in, trees we climbed, baseball fields, pools, parents and holiday stories. The memories flooded back. I realized these neighborhoods had changed, completely different feel to them. The Ryan’s no longer lived there, Leach family was gone, no Pollards, no Campbells no Wilds, no Van Schoten’s. Instead, new families, new memories, a whole new generation of memories have been put in place. So with this said, we hold on to our memories, come home for the holidays, reminisce and smile. Possibly make some phone calls and meet up downtown at an old hang out that now has a new name and a different feel. That’s okay, you still see the exposed brick where a certain photo or mural was hanging. Remember the high-top table that donned the far wall. The memories are still there, just need to be dusted off.
So back to the old neighborhood, that house you grew up in was built in the ’40s. So you grew up in the ’60s and ’70s. That was considered your home. But what about the family that grew up in that house in the ’40s and ’50s? Is it possible there is a person out there just like me that considers that home their home? What about the late ’90s, 2000- 2010 and beyond? We sold that home in the early ’90s. Are there people younger than me that consider that home their home? Wow, is that even possible? Of course, it is. I wonder if those younger people know that my dad and brothers built that addition on to the house. Or that I use to crawl out the 2nd-floor window to tan on the roof? The tree in the front yard was planted by my father. I always thought of it as the “little tree” It is no longer little, it towers over the home. If only the memories of the home could move forward, what a delight that would be.
Home for the holidays is just a piece down memory lane. I hope you all have wonderful warm memories from wherever home is for you. Enjoy your families, friends and Happy Holidays from RE/MAX Checkmate: SELLabrate Team 423-677-6677 TriCitieshomes.INFO
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