My Old Home Town

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I recently visited my Dad in central New York, meeting up with my sister, who came from DC. We ran errands, did paperwork, bought new flowers for Mom’s grave and, of course, went to Dad’s nursing home. He’s… fading, which is not a tragedy, considering he’s been more than ready to go for several years. The situation led to the following conversation:

Barb: After Dad dies, we’ll never come back to Liverpool again.

Julia: Well. A couple times a year to tend to the cemetery plot.

Barb: Okay. I’ll do the spring if you’ll do the fall.

This all got me thinking about the concept of home towns, because Liverpool, NY is one of two places I consider my home town. We moved there right before I started by sophomore year, and I graduated from high school there. I sang in the Episcopal church choir, and I acted in the community theater. I went to college a little over an hour away, In Ithaca. And, of course, I came back hundreds of times over the decades to stay with Mom and dad, dragging boyfriends, then a husband, then kids.

 

But the concept of moving back to Liverpool makes me break out into a cold sweat. (Apologies to Liverpudlians, who are justly proud of their home.) It’s got an eminently walkable village on Lake Onondaga, with beautiful mid nineteenth century houses and miles of gorgeous lakeside parks. It’s close to the cultural resources of a large city, and to the biggest and most advanced medical care outside of NYC. The price of houses are rising, but it’s still affordable, and Central New York has a very low cost of living index. And, not to get political, because we try not to here, but it’s in a Blue state, which makes me feel more comfortable. If it were in NH or MA I’d jump at it!

And yet… Is it because my every teen-age embarrassment and misstep happened there? Is it because it was my parents’ choice, not mine? Or is it because I spent my first quarter century relentlessly moving, and learned to never look back? (Liverpool was the eighth place I lived, and I would go on for five more moves until settling here in This Old House.)

What do you think, Reds? What do you consider your home town, and would you - if you could - go back?

LUCY BURDETTE: I consider Berkeley Heights NJ to be my hometown, as I lived there from first to fifth, and then ninth to twelfth grades. And my parents stayed there through my college years. It was a great place to grow up, with lots of kids in the neighborhood in the early years, block parties, a walkable grade school, and so on. But no family lives there now, and I can’t imagine going back. My dearest friends are now in CT and Key West, plus the mystery writing community scattered across the country. 

 

 I’ve taken John on a hometown tour (he says 3 times, I say twice), so he can now point out the place where my brother and I wiped out on a bike, where I drove the family car into a chain that wrinkled up the hood like tin foil, and where the first German shepherd pooped on the angry man’s lawn. I do kind of yearn for a town that I’d always lived in and where my relatives still live, but it isn’t going to happen so I love where I am!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Go back? Like, live there? Ah, I’m pretty happy right here outside of Boston. I was born in Chicago, and that would be a cool place to live, kind of midwest-Boston (or Boston is east-coast Chicago) so that would be doable but feels administratively difficult. I have no real ties there, although some lovely family lives there. I really grew up outside of Indianapolis, a place that was incredibly rural at the time, more than rural (ponies, barns, bus to school, no stores walkable, and barely neighbors), but which is now chic and artsy and desirable.

 

 The house where I grew up (which was a gorgeous old  farmhouse, renovated, and quite special,with huge fireplaces and an art gallery), was re-renovated into being unrecognizable by the new owners  after my stepfather died and my Mom moved to a different suburb.  Gosh, Indianapolis itself is unrecognizable! I would not even know my way around! I have lots of acquaintances from high school there, but we live in entirely different worlds. I do feel connected when I meet someone from Indiana, and I always watch the Indy 500 and feel nostalgic about it, so some of that emotion never leaves. But I was happy to move on.

 

RHYS BOWEN:  I grew up in a small village in Kent, south of London. Our house was down a long drive in the middle of apple orchards and hop fields. It was a long walk to the village which had one row of shops and a pub. It took an hour, two buses to get to school. The only other important thing was the paper factory that my father ran. My mum became principal of the school. You can guess that other kids kept their distance from me! Except for Christine, my best friend with whom I’m still friends. 

 

But as for that idyllic village—it’s been swallowed up into London suburbs. I didn’t know where I was last time I was there as the motorway comes through it. My house was torn down for that motorway. And no ties to it for many years as my parents moved to Australia.  Our one UK connection is John’s sister’s manor house in Cornwall. I’d move there in a heartbeat if my darned children weren’t all here!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I didn't get very far away from where I grew up--only about fifteen miles--in Richardson, Texas. When my parents built there in the late forties, it was rural, with a little main street. The town has been totally swallowed by Dallas now, of course. My parents sold their house when I was in my mid-twenties and I never really forgave them for it.

JENN McKINLAY: I have two hometowns, both are in Connecticut. Kent is in the mountains and we lived there until I was nine. Most definitely an idyllic childhood, running amok in the small village with my brother. It was the sort of place that when you were naughty, your mom knew about it before you got home because the entire town raised you. We moved to Niantic, which was on the shore, after that and it, too, was a lovely place to live, but it was bigger and had a more seasonal residence vibe to it. The high school years were fun and many of my classmates still live there. I love CT. It’s a part of me, but I never had the urge to settle there. I love AZ and it, too, is a part of me, but I expect that Hub and I will retire elsewhere. Not for nothing, but Hawaii seems nice :) 

 

JULIA: Ooo. Better make sure you have plenty of guest rooms, Jenn. I'm sure you'll be lonely and want to invite your blogging sisters to come visit you.

 

HALLIE EPHRON: My hometown is Beverly Hills. I know, fancy-schmancy, but it didn’t feel that way to me growing up. We lived in what they call the “flats”... between a more middle income neighborhood (really) south of Wilshire and the uber-wealthy enclaves north of Sunset and up in the canyons. I roller skated on the sidewalk and rode my bike all over after school and played in the elementary school playground a few blocks from the house. It was more or less free-reign childhood in what felt, then, like “any” neighborhood to me at least.

These days, there’s something about Southern California that makes me feel old, fat, and poor the minute I disembark at LAX. Car travel is a nightmare and it’s pretty much the only way to get around. If it weren’t for a beloved sister, her family, and a couple of long-time friends I’d never go back.