In August 2014 I left Utah and drove back to Victoria. Once there it took me several months to move into and furnish a house ( I had returned with all my worldly possessions in the back of my truck ...)
In December I decided to treat myself. On my birthday I drove to Galveston. First thing I did was drive around to view the many significant locations — houses where I had lived, schools I attended. Some no longer there.
Then I had lunch at Gaidos. Walked on the beach. Drove from one end to the other of Seawall Boulevard. Stopped at 39th Street, got out of my truck to sit on the seawall ... and … remember.
Late afternoon saw me homeward …
That brief visit remains in my memory with all my other Galveston history.
Lately I have found myself fantasizing of a return to Galveston — to live there, even perhaps in one of the houses I lived in … and then stark reality reminds me that the town I remember from the 1940s is no more.
Significant is my reaction — I am reminded of Thomas Wolfe's oft quoted “You can't go home again . . . “
“If you try to return to a place from your past it won't be the same as it was.”
So I must reorient myself, to look forward, to face the future … moving on.
1 comment:
It's so true, "You can't go home again," but those memories are powerful and can take us on wonderful journeys of days long past. (You caught me with that title!) One of my favorite songs because my heart is always warmed with my own Galveston memories. :)
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