' Rencent reading an art friends missing home'

I recently read one of my art friends blog that was about her visiting home and how much it always hurts when she comes home. while I was telling her how much I could relate, in a comment I left her...........I thought wow....there are some bottled emotions there with me still too, sooooo lets blog it. who knows maybe there is someone out there that feels the same way as the two of us. I grew up in a very small and beautiful mountain town of Hayfork California. 23 of my married years were there, including the wedding, we raised our beautiful kids there and included many great foster kids to our family as well. A year ago in Sept. we moved only two hours away to a bedroom city to the larger city of Redding California. that may seem just a little ways to some.............but it is a total world, no a total planet from here. Our wonderful home town is isolated with breathtaking mountain scenery and is almost an hour from the nearest town .....on a very long and curvy road that most 'city' visitors either just hate........or get car sick. Most of the town is related (either actually, or by being adopted into the fold). you always get waves and hellos when you drive into or through town. most people have neighbors, but you 'might' be able to see their house, but you sure don't see them or hear them......unless you visit. Every time I visit it is like this total mix up off emotions for me. I almost hate/love it. To go from such an amazing community and friends, to another kind of community can shock the system. There are things that are totally cool and I love about our 'new' home, like mail delivery to the door, garbage pickup at your drive, great 'big' stores and restaurants right around the block and most of all the ..........omg..........really fast Internet. We had just gotten cell phone coverage within the last few years before we moved , and unless you wanted to pay huge prices for satellite Internet.........you put up with very slowwwwwwww dial up coverage. Now the things I miss so very, very much.......not just the waves and hellos up town, but the fact that when you go to the stores , post office or to eat out.....it was a lengthy thing because you had these wonderful visit with those that you know and love, and they know and love you. Even if you had a few disagreements somewhere in the years past, or even yesterday......you still were a part of their lives, they yours and you still cared about them. Sports of course plays a huge role in the tiny town, since most of the kids have not much else to do........and parents have not much else to do but watch and encourage their kids. At the games you see 3,4 and 5th generation kids playing along side each other, with a spattering of new additions. Then in the bleachers yelling and cheering you see their parents, their grandparents and even a few great grand parents, not to mention the aunts, uncles cousins etc. The coaches are friends, relatives and probably have kids next to yours on the playing field and went to school with the parents watching. We always had what others called a rag-tag bunch of kids with a notorious reputation for being fighters, come-backers, and most of all proud and never give-up to the last seconders. Now I know that my grammar stinks and spelling too I am sure, but that is the way I would describe those many, many kids that grew up in, still live in, or moved from but are still 'from and part of' the family of Hayfork. I miss driving 2-8 hours to the games to be amazed that we had more parents and fans in the stands than the home team, and being ohhhh soooo proud of that. I miss feeling like what is that , that made such a huge part of 'who and what' I am. I miss a little tiny fair, where you could see everything in a couple of hours, but you spent all day and evening there. I miss the wonderful people that, when a crisis or death saddened a family, everyone in the town feels it and jumps to help in any way they can. Someone that has a medical condition that taxes their finances and so a town dinner and auction is held and with only a few hundered poeple even in the the town population, they dig deep and raise thousands to help. When the football or other teams need money to attend a sports camp, many of those kids can't afford new cleats each year, let alone the entry cost to the camps, so the town pulls together and raises what is needed ,so no team mate that wants to attend is left out. If you visit from another town to watch the games.......it is almost always commented that the equiptment and playing fields are so nice and even better than their 'big' schools. That is because most of those working at the schools, once attended them and have emmence pride it how their school looks, it also has to do with a very deep pride in a community for where the kids play and participate.
Even those that do not return often after moving.............they still say their 'home' is Hayfork. I am one of those and I must say, it was much harder to leave and move to another part and step in my life. I have two children that hope to move back some day, after making their way in a career, and I have two kids that say they will never move back............but they still consider themselves part of that Red and Black Timberjack Family, and so do I. We may call ourselves many things, others may joke about the hicks from Hayfork, but I have never had anything but pride of that title. It can not be too bad, since having married a man who lived in and went to school in a 'rival' town.........and if you asked him where his home is, he also would say Hayfork. Like many people who did not decend from their, that moved there, he grew to love the people and consider them his extended family and part of 'who and what' he is as well. That is the best note to leave on........................ lol