A Visit to the Past

Recently on Facebook, a lot of friends and acquaintances have been celebrating a ‘throw-back’ period, by posting old photos of themselves. I caught the fever, too, and included these two photos from my college days on my Facebook page. I think I was a junior at BGSU in the first photo and the second one is our engagement photo from 1983. (Not that you can miss it, but notice the big hair and the fact that I still had braces. There are more photos below.) It’s been fun to read the comments people write about all of the photo postings. Sometimes it’s easy to see the resemblance to the person from a photo decades old and sometimes it isn’t.

Looking at these old photos brought to mind the trip my husband, Ken, and I took to Charlotte, NC last fall for a business conference he needed to attend. In many ways being in Charlotte was like visiting the past, since we lived in the area for a couple of years about 23 years ago. We had rented a sweet little house in a small community called Locust. Needless to say, since we were so close, I just had to visit that area and see the little house I had visited so many hundreds of times in my memory since we lived there.

Ken was game, so we left the Charlotte area and headed into the country to the little community where we had lived. I just knew I would remember the exact road we needed to turn on, despite the fact that it was dark when Ken and I arrived and we had not visited the area since we moved to Durham in 1989! Well, it took us a few tries, but we eventually found the road and then the little house where we lived. What a joy it was for me to see that little brick house! The house was nearly new when we moved there in 1987. It was the last rental we had before we bought our first house. So many goals and dreams were born in that little house! We dreamed about our upcoming move to Durham and the house we would buy there. Most importantly, we dreamed about the family we would have once we purchased our own house. Matthew was planned, but still very much a dream in those days. Yet, because of all of these dreams and musings, that little house took on a personality of its own in my memory and one I have 'visited' countless times.

I told Ken that night that I’d love to take a trip, a tour, if you will, of all the places we’ve lived in our 25 years of marriage. That would be 12 locations, counting the one where we currently reside. The states would include Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia and finally, Ohio! Each one is fresh in my memory, probably because “home” has always been so important to me. So, seeing as though it would take a week to visit all of these locations, I think I’ll just stroll down memory lane instead and flip through the photo albums as I go.

Do you have memories you like to ‘visit’ on a regular basis? Mine generally include time we spent so many years ago as a young married couple, planning our life together. Others are the wonderful memories I have of my parents, and of course, my college days! Sometimes I’d like to go back, if only for a little while. If I could go back, I would first spend time with my mother, just the two of us for an entire day! Wow, that would be awesome! If I had a second wish, I’d go back to when Matthew was little. What a treasure that would be! He was such a sweet baby, and I have loved every stage of his development, but I have to say, it would be his toddler days that I would visit.

Here are photos from those days...


Here my sweet mother and I were photographed at our home in Durham. We were best friends! This photo was taken only about a year before she passed away at age 53. She's been gone almost 17 years and I think of her many, many times every day. I still miss her so much it hurts.



Here I am with my Daddy. He was such a tough guy with a heart of gold! He was truly one of the most generous individuals I've ever known. This photo was taken about 1o years ago. Daddy has been gone almost 5 years. I miss him so much.


Here is our sweet little family in 1993. I treasure this photo!



Matthew and Mommy. He was such a sweet little boy!

If you had the opportunity to visit a time in your past, where would you go first? Second? Why do you think it would be in that order?