You Can Go Home Again, But You May Not Know the Street Names…

Back in the small town that I grew up in, just north of Austin, is always an exciting trip. When I was in high school and driving one-lane country roads were far different from the city highways. College days had Christmases where old friends and family mixed in one relaxing vacation away from studies and parties. Now some of the old friends have dispersed around the nation and the family is beginning to gather for funerals more than celebrations, but it can still be an enjoyable time.

I went home for the weekend for a Godson’s confirmation and visits with old friends and their new wives. The problem with visiting with the friends is that they all have moved out of their parent’s home. (Which in retrospect is a great thing because being married, living with parents and mid-twenties is an embarrassment.) However, I have no clue where they live in the town six miles away from where we grew up. They all had the experience of high school cruising those streets for hours on end as an escape. I just flew into town then, could tell you how to get to the grocery store or Sonic, but nothing else. (The big town next to my small one, is still so small it doesn’t have a movie theater or a mall.) So, as my friends and lovely wives ask me over for drinks and dinner and give me the address, I am completely lost. Their well-intended lank-marks are of little help. (I really don’t know where the new baseball fields are, and my once-a-year trip will probably not offer any illumination.) Being separated from the Internet, I am forced to drive around quasi-lost in an effort to find a relaxing meal and cold beer.

I spent a lot of time driving circles around the old square where the Chinese restaurant remains, but the clothing store is gone and the public park where kids still use the sludge invested waters of the San Gabriel as their winter swimming pool. At first, I was upset that things had changed so much, and that I was lost. But the longer I drove, the more I began to enjoy the town. Though it still held some of the pleasure of being where I grew up, I saw the town in the way locals saw it: with a Starbuck’s, modern little league baseball fields, new highways and renovations of the old courthouse. For my friends who stayed, I started to understand why. Though the place was no longer the one we played tag in, it was still a pretty good place.