Shall we wax nostalgic. You know life has this way of sneaking up on you and then boom all of a sudden you're remembering things that happened a long time ago. Well this has been a week for that kind of thing for me.
First I took my mother to the funeral of one of her dearest friends who passed away at 92. I knew the lady from my youth. At church service prior to the afternoon funeral, one of her grandsons came up to speak and asked me if I was my brother. As I do when that happens I said "I'm the older, smarter, better looking one." On the way home, I realized that I had not spoken to him or his wife in over 30 years.
Driving back to Virginia, I commented to my wife that during the visit at my mother's that I realized that my father had been dead for 30 years. Up until then, it had not occurred to me it had been that long. Time has a way of doing that to you.
I am not one who lives in the past, but reading the posts on Facebook reminiscing about things growing up where I did have served to remind me of what a great place Murray KY was to grow up and get an education. I know just like each grandchild at the funeral on Sunday said "I had the best grandmother," many of us would say that about our hometowns. Yes we look back on our youths fondly and gloss over the unpleasant things that happened, but we can never really leave that place behind.
Since our life experiences are part and parcel of who we are; our hometown is in many ways the foundation of who and what we become. I have said in the past that playing baseball as a kid is a core part of me. In those leagues on those hot summer afternoons, we learned how to play a game that required teamwork, thinking and athletic ability. We forged relationships with guys from different parts of the community and worked toward a common goal. Just like in the "Bad News Bears," in the end everyone on the team played a role.
Schools serve the same purpose. I still clearly recall a basketball game my freshman year in high school that taught me a great life lesson. Murray was playing our arch rivals Calloway. The schools are less than two miles apart physically but in those days light years apart culturally. Murray is the city school in a university town, and Calloway was the county school in a predominantly farming community. This particular year, Murray had the weaker team and Calloway was led by the 6'8" James Wells, who went on to play D-1 basketball at Hawaii. Murray's coach chose to start Joe Resig a 6'1" senior and give him the assignment of guarding Wells. This drama played out in front of 2,000+ people in Murray's cracker box of a gym. At the end of the night, Resig had held Wells below his average and Murray pulled off a huge upset. The lesson I learned that night was that if you worked hard and as a team you could pull off miracles.
For all of the ups and downs involved in growing up where and when I did, I would not trade it for the world. My hometown, no matter how much it has changed, or the fact that many have moved away will always hold a special place in my life.
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