Report From An Opinionated Gardener – August 26
I’m not the first one to remark on how the places from your childhood shrink as you get older. If you’ve returned to an old house, school or landscape you know what I mean. When I picture the street I lived on in the late 1950’s, it is long, the houses large and the neighborhood spacious. Yesterday I returned to Muncie, Indiana after 40 plus years and see that it is anything but.
Part of this is that those things were all larger when I was young because I was smaller. Some of it is due to memories getting altered along the way… I often dream of this neighborhood and in my dreams the streets are very long and wide. Without a doubt, this has altered how I recall things.
Despite things being smaller and closer together than I remember, I was pleased to be able to visit the landscapes of my childhood. I remembered people I haven’t thought of in years. Where is Megan Cogswell and Rusty Willard, anyway?
You can go home again…it will just look smaller.
The house my parents built looks pretty much the same, although it's missing the lamp post that was out front, and the decorative iron grill panels on the entryway.
