Take Me Home, Country Roads

Sunset starts early in my West Virginia hills. At 3pm today, I already needed my lights on driving through the valleys along Route 250.

I haven't spent as much time among other hills and mountain ranges, but I always notice the particular way the rising and setting sun hits just one side of the trees along the hillsides. It almost looks like one side of the tree trunks and branches is a different brighter color than the other side. Am I the only one who notices this?

I've easily spent about half of my life living on flatter ground. I've lived in places where the sun doesn't slowly rise and fade behind high, majestic hills. Early on, it seemed so strange to be able to see so far. The sky wasn't so big where I grew up.

My relationship with West Virginia is a strange one. I grew up always knowing I'd leave. But I'm fiercely proud of growing up there, and loyal to my home state.

Today, I loved pointing out landmarks to my daughter. From my high school, to her old school (we moved back for a few years), to where an old boyfriend lived... And then it made me sad when she pointed out several houses and buildings literally just falling down from neglect.

I grew up well off in West Virginia. Even when my dad was out of work, we had strong family support. And my dad got out there, worked for less while he had to, and then worked his way up at a better job. My mom went back and finished her degree. I like to think I inherited and learned my strong work ethic from them.

West Virginia has always had to fight to stay alive, it seems, but I still see signs of her dying when I look around. In Research Triangle Park, NC, fully half of those I worked with were West Virginia natives. For decades, well educated West Virginians have fled the state. Sure, there are exceptions. NASA and other high tech jobs in North Central WV, the Eastern panhandle being within DC commuting distance, and a lot more I'm sure I don't know about since living away. But my husband couldn't make a decent living there as a mechanical engineer, nor could I in market research, other than working remotely for a Michigan-based company.

The state population today (always less than 2 million total) is still less than it was when I was growing up, and my home county in particular has probably lost more than its fair share - where once several coal mines dotted the landscape, none are left operating in Marion County, WV.

My hometown was a boomtown in the very early 1900s, but it is sad to me that it may never see anything like that again. The interstates may have helped to save WV, but mostly folks use those roads to travel across it when they must. Maybe you've been skiing or white water rafting in West Virginia? Well, at least then you may remember that it's a state.

I still constantly hear stories of those who don't recall or perhaps never learned that West Virginia has been a separate state from Virginia since 1863. I've personally run into that ignorance several times.

My challenge to you is this: if you've never really visited West Virginia, you should; and if you've never really been away from West Virginia, you should do more traveling. This world and this country have many wonders to see. There just might be more than its fair share in West Virginia.

As for me, I may travel far from its borders. I may live longer in other states. I may have married a Jersey boy. My kids may grow up in suburbia. But country roads will always take me home.

Thankful Posts

I've tried, perhaps not very successfully, to do somewhat more quirky thankful posts on Facebook this year.  I know folks get sick of seeing all those thankful posts each November, but it's a tradition I still kind of like.  If I were more ambitious, I'd make one of those cute thankful jars or other great Thanksgiving crafts you can find all over Pinterest.  But my problem with Pinterest is that it gives me way too many wonderful ideas that I'll never be able to get to.

So, back to the thankful posts.  I started writing out today's, but it got too long, so you get a blog about it instead.  Lucky you!

Today, I'm thankful for my house's intercom system.  It's not something I would have shopped for in a house (not even this, our 7th one!).  I remember noticing it in the online pictures when we were house-hunting from Lexington though.  I remember my teenage daughter immediately asking if she could plug her iPhone into it to play her music throughout the house.  But the house was built in 2008 as a model home, so that was doubtful.

We don't use the intercoms much to talk to folks at the door or to talk to each other from different rooms from the house (although of course that's possible).  But, it reminds me of my childhood.  Despite them not being as much like this today, I suspect I got my love of tech and gadgets from my parents, because our house had some very cool features for the late 70s/early 80s, and the one that was the most novel and fun (because let's just admit that an 8 or 10-year-old could care less about a whole-house built-in vacuum) was the intercom system.  We had built-in walkie-talkies, for heaven's sake!  Find me a kid that doesn't think this is cool, I double-dog dare you!  We could play the radio in almost every room in the house.

I guess the novelty wore off after a while, but that intercom system was certainly showed off to every visitor that I remember growing up.  At some point, it stopped working, and those poor intercoms just started collecting dust, but I find it very cool that our house now has something so reminiscent of a very techie part of my childhood.

Come to think of it, we also stayed pretty up-to-date with the gaming systems of the day, including having a Pong system.  We were a pretty high tech family!

The main unit of my 2008-vintage intercom system came with a built-in 6-disc CD changer.  Ah, 2008, not so long ago, but just before everybody actually played all their music from smartphones.  Sorry, kids, no smartphone/mp3 player input for you.

Ah, but, that 6-disc CD changer was broken, and we just happen to have a good builder standing behind our house and repairing things (thank goodness due to some bigger issues we quickly ran into).  After several months of searching for a replacement CD changer and even trying the one used one they were able to track down that still didn't work, I got a call asking if we'd mind having a single CD player with an auxiliary input for things like mp3 players.  After careful thought and consideration (not), I jumped at that.  It cost our poor builder another $800, but we now have exactly what we thought would be so cool when we saw that picture of our house online.

Sometimes things just work out, and I can see that happening with ever step of our most recent move, down to the intercom system in our house.  I'm not sure why we've been this fortunate, but I am definitely thankful.  Now, excuse me while I get back to work and blast some Bryan Adams through those intercom speakers ; )

Main intercom unit similar to the one I had growing up

Our main intercom unit in my house today

 

A Poem for My Girl

I push you because

I am good, but you are better

I cheer for you because

I am amazed at what you can already do

I say you’re beautiful because

You are, inside and out

I say I’m proud of you because

I am, and didn’t hear it often myself

I criticize you because

I know when you can do better

I praise you because

I know when you’ve given your all

I hug you because

A hug gives strength

I encourage you because

We all need it

I say “Try harder” because

I know you can

I tell you to be honest because

We all should be

I love you because

You are my only daughter

I am proud because

You are turning into an amazing woman

I am sad because

You are almost grown

And, to close, can anyone possibly believe that this girl has no idea she's beautiful?