I have a confession--I'm a southerner with Yankee blood. Don't get me wrong. I love me some fried chicken, mashed taters, cole slaaaaaw, grits, biscuits and gravy, dumplings, etc....but, I found my Yankee side this past weekend.
The Mr. and I did a road trip home to good ole' Roanoke, Virginia-star city of the south and home to the Texas Tavern-to visit with my parents and some relatives from my mom's side of the family that were visiting.
While none of them live in NYC now, my grandparents, great aunts and uncles all hail from the Bronx. And, this past weekend, I got a chance to reunite with several of them-listening to sex jokes, and stories about their escapades growing up, etc. We laughed, we cried, it was better than Cats.
I love that my grandparents and aunts and uncles all grew up in the same neighborhood-half of the time when they are telling stories, you have no idea if they are talking about a relative or a friend or both-since they all were friends and ended up all being related through marriage--so maybe there is a bit of southern blood in my family after all?
We found out all sorts of interesting facts and weird stories that just kept on coming-a few relatives were bigamists and started new families-so we may have relatives out there that we don't know about, and my great great grandparents got divorced-when nobody else was doing so.....all very bizarre.
The visit was a bit bittersweet-my grandma is going to be moving into an assisted living community soon, and has decided to clean house. And while I'm happy she's made the decision to move-it's the last piece of Roanoke that I can return to that is filled with memories. My parents moved out of the house I grew up in, and my aunt and uncle moved away-so grandma's is the last place that is filled with those sweet memories of playing cards, listening to records, glancing at the Norman Rockwell prints, thumbing through old photos and setting up a "store" and selling my grandparent's own seashells back to them.
It's sad to wave goodbye to that. It's heartbreaking to take some of grandma's records that I grew to love--and know that listening to them will never quite be the same as it was. I guess that is what everyone in my family discovered this weekend-things just arent' the way they were. They ALL used to vacation together. All of the cousins would be together every summer...but you grow up, things change, people move--and nothing is the same.
But, one thing hasn't changed, and that's the feeling I get when I get to spend time with all of these relatives--the feeling of being complete, laughing until your sides hurt, and being a part of something so sweet that words can't even capture the amount of love you feel. I'll always take it---even if it means being part Yankee. Sorry General Lee.
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