Friday, April 6, 2012

Home is Wherever I'm With You

Dear Santa Cruz,

I have said, and will say again, that I miss you. Last year was the milestone when, I realized, I have been gone as long as I lived within your silly walls.

Yesterday morning, however, I saw a girl with VERY purple hair jogging along the roadside. This in and of itself is not unusual in Eureka although it wasn't particularly pretty purple hair which is unusual. She was running behind a young man who I believe was wearing a fox tail attached to his pants....at least I think it was just a pretend tail attached to his pants.

This morning, a man sat in the driveway of a boarded-up Jack-in-the-Box, flying a sign trolling for contributions to whatever his daily needs have become. This man wore a hat with ram horns attached....at least I think it was a hat with pretend ram horns.

So, Santa Cruz, thank you for sending your minions to make me feel at home. While I still miss running into school mates in the Alpha Beta or seeing the names of people I grew up with in my morning Sentinel, I miss it less every day and every day feels more like home in Humboldt.

Love,
Debbie

2 comments:

Fred Mangels said...

Interesting question, isn't it? When is a place you lived no longer home and the place you're living becomes Home? The same could be asked about "Where are you from?", or "Where you grew up?".

I forget at what point the places I lived in Southern CA became just faded memories and no longer "home", or "where I grew up". It might have been as you referred to:

Once I lived up here longer than I lived in SoCal, this became Home.

Ross Rowley said...

Just like Willow Creek is for me. You can visit, but you can never go back home.

My daughter is feeling the same way as she flees Humboldt for Portland. She came back when times were tough, but as soon as she got back on her feet, she went back to the place that feels more comfortable to her and her lifestyle and that's not Humboldt County, it's Portland, Oregon.

Although, her mother has a fondness for Santa Cruz, too. But, she'll never return even though she still has brothers there.