a town

our history museum

it sort of just, you know, happened.  this town becoming mine.  there was nothing particularly intentional about it.  love and marriage brought me here; and, if i am honest, some degree of inertia made us stay.  i have lived here longer than i have lived any place else in my entire life.  i like that my children have deep roots in the town of their birth.  (although my own childhood of being re-planted in multiple towns & countries definitely had its merits.)
but i do believe this is a perfect spot for now.



anyone remember this sign?  i do.  my husband used to like to get his work trousers here - jeans, too.  and they had $2 (or, maybe, it was even $1) alterations.  our town is a factory town - tobacco, furniture, and textiles.

like your denim jeans?  thank our town.

addicted to Vicks Vaporub?  or have strong childhood memories of the smell?  you can thank our town for that, too.  when we were first married, we lived just next to the old factory grounds.  i kept hoping to find an old bottle, but i never did.  (one day i did come out to my car in the morning to find pennies flung all over the street, so at least i can say i found treasure.  we pinched those pennies hard.)

you might think i am well-read.  i guess that is relative, but i'm not sure i qualify.

i don't believe i've read a single story by this hometown boy.

i haven't even stayed in his hotel.

just kidding.  i know he doesn't own the hotel.

why, here i am, hanging out with the locals on our tour of the history museum.  there were two young children on the tour, whom the guide tried to engage.  at one point, she was trying to relate an old gramophone to today's version of accessing music - and told the little boy it was like playing a CD.  rightly so, he looked at her blankly.


there are some old houses on the property of the history museum, moved from other parts of the county.  this one was particularly fancy.  they must have been quite wealthy people: separate sleeping rooms, window panes, detailed woodwork, a kitchen building - the works!

this is a different house, which wasn't open to tour.  only two windows, one on the back & one on the front.  i think it must have an attic room, because i can see the ends of square beams along one of the upper logs.  see?  right there.  a hazy sun was behind the clouds yesterday, but it has just turned the sky white in this picture.

ya'll come for a visit sometime!