Here I is, back in my old home state for a brief visit with my Dad. He will be 89 this June 29th. He has had some rocky times the last couple of months, trying to recover from a fall and an infection, but he has improved enough to return to his home at Independence Village in East Lansing, Michigan.
I haven't lived regularly in Michigan since 1978. I have lived more years in Georgia than in Michigan. When I went to school here, I didn't feel particularly welcomed or loved. I didn't really feel like I fit in very well. And yet, I do have a nostalgia for this place.
I think of the crisp Michigan Falls. Biking down the two lane roads I almost felt like I was on a movie set.
I remember the Boy Scout hike I took with three other boys, where we got lost and followed a railroad track. The whole thing was almost straight out of the movie Stand By Me.
I remember going through snow drifts, and building snow forts and snow tunnels, and snow piled so high you could climb up onto the roof of your house.
I remember the travel trailer and vacations by Lakes, and getting pneumonia up in Traverse City.
I remember going over to Cindy Nestell's, and listening to her play the piano and talking to her for hours and hours.
I sometimes think how my life would have been different had I gotten to stay in Michigan and never would have moved to Georgia. Would I be even more disgusted with what's happening in your state politics than I already am? Would I be sick of winter instead of nostalgic for it? Would I have ever fit in any better than I did when I was young?
I'll never know. I've made a life for myself in the great South Georgia Swampland. The weather sucks, most people are right wing of Attila the Hun, but I have a decent job, and this is where my family and friends are. And, ultimately, it's the people in your life that make your heart sing, that makes a place right.
So, Michigan, you are a pleasant dream to me, one I won't forget. But home is where the heart is, and though the great Yankee north pulls at me, I know where I belong.
Yes, you belong in sweet Georgia! This is the home of your great little boy, and my great little boys, and of my granddaughter, from whom I will never be a state away. You are a big fish in a small pond, in our town. Everyone seems to know you, and like as much as they know of you. You have arrived.
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