Thursday, January 17, 2008

Tripping


Jay and I are heading out to Newton this weekend. Back to the land of grain elevators, fireflys (well, not this time of year) and wheat fields. I cannot wait to get on the train and go. Part of the excitement is the train, part is a trip with Jay, but a lot of it is that I'm going back to where my mom and dad lived. My whole life we've (my mom and dad and me) spent time in that part of Kansas, driving on those old brick streets, looking at the house they lived in in the forties (614 Elm Street), the first Dillon's store my dad worked at, and stopping by friends and relatives houses. I have such a desire to be there, in that place. The last few times I've been there it's been with my sister or brother, hearing about the times before I was born, stories about my dad filling the whole, huge back yard with tomato plants or my mom, the only girl in her family to go to high school, working at Kreskies Drug and her dad picking up her pay check every Friday. I heard a quote, and I cannot remember the source right now , that goes "When an old person dies, a library burns down" and it's so true. There's so much I wish I'd asked but didn't.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alex Haley said, "The death of an old person is like the burning of a library."
As Mary Pipher says in "Another Country" Visiting my family allowed me to read some of the books before they burned.
I look forward to your stories of Newton!

Whispering Willow said...

Hope you guys have a fun and safe trip.

By the way, are you teaching at the university again this semester?

Brook Ann ( the Great ) said...

what a great quote, I love alex haley. have a great trip