Yesterday, I drove up a familiar, winding gravel road
To the graveside service for my best friend's mom.
And I wept softly as I stood on that gentle hillside,
Moved by nostalgia, stirring sights, and songs.
Afterwards, I stood at a viewpoint where many before me had stood
In the same melancholy and tailored suits,
Peering down on a scattering of people and houses,
And caught a reflective glimpse of the chronicle of my youth
Where there once stood a horse corral and a 4-H barn
With an out-of-date Coca-Cola cooler just inside the door,
Where a single silver quarter bought a bagful of penny candy
At the neighborhood Mom and Pop grocery store.
It brought to mind the mean spirited neighbor girl
Whose face I once buried in a snow bank,
And the towering grain elevator that I scaled one cold October night,
On a bet… a daring Halloween prank.
I remembered the elderly woman who used to unlock the church.
I'll never forget the expression in her eyes
When I stepped on the gas instead of the brake
That first Sunday morning I was learning to drive!
The small green house on the corner belonged to my brother's “comrade in crime,”
He was a redheaded mischievous scamp,
And there's the community hall where the Woman's Club held its bake sales,
And the corner where I was first kissed beneath the light of the street lamp.
I barely recognize what's left of my childhood home,
The iron fence I used to climb over, now rusted and collapsed,
And the pollywog creek, stagnant and obscured,
Overgrown with cattails and reed grass.
It was a bittersweet day of remembrance
As the wind rustled thru the aged oak trees,
And the setting sun cast poignant shadows upon
The gathering of well turned-out attendees
Tears fell unabashedly for a dear woman, gone,
For the lost age of innocence and small town bazaars,
For “neighbors and friends” and unlocked front doors,
And carefree kids balanced on bicycle handlebars.
But these are the people and the places I'll remember for all time,
No one can touch them or tear them down.
These are the memories that make up my life,
This is where I grew up, this is my hometown.
* de - october 2001
