~and many more~
The party is winding down for the 159th birthday of my home state on this Kansas Day of 2020. Although 159 seems to be quite a formidable number, in comparison to let's say, Rhode Island, Kansas is just a teenager barely old enough to get behind the wheel of the family SUV with their learner's permit. For over 55 years, Kansas was the place I made my home. I was born there, raised up there, had my family there, and was sure I would die there. I taught school and lived in the very same county all that time, never wandering around the rest of the state all that much. South central Kansas and in particular, Reno County, was good enough for me. Why would I look elsewhere?
In 2013 that all changed.
My first few months away from home as a newlywed living in the beautiful San Juan mountains of southwestern Colorado were painful. I felt like a flower that had been ripped from its normal spot in the garden and haphazardly transplanted against the far side of the garage. It hurt like heck to lose the familiarity that over half of a century of life as a Kansan had afforded me. There were plenty of trips between Montrose and Hutchinson that first year or so as little by little, I found my way in a new "neighborhood".
Any chance that I had to go home for a visit was taken by me.
It was tough but I made it, thanks to Mike and a whole passel full of folks in the little town of Olathe, Colorado.
I've been away from Kansas for nearly 6 1/2 years now, only going home for a visit now and then. Although I no longer feel that horrible ache in my heart because I'm not living there, I still miss certain things from time to time. I have family in Kansas and a lifetime of friends who meant the world to me when I lived there and who mean even more to me now that I am gone.
Some things will never change.
Mike and I moved closer to my "old home" this past spring when we bought a house here in Newkirk, Oklahoma. Now we are no more than a 10 minute drive to the Oklahoma-Kansas border, a journey that we make sometimes twice a week. There's nothing like traveling to Arkansas City and going to shop at Dillons each week or even hopping into the car and journeying up to Wichita or even home to Hutchinson from time to time as well. For the first time in 7 years, we can do that now. What a joy it is to see the sign that welcomes me back each time I head north!
Yes, the candles have been blown out by now and the last slice of birthday cake is more than likely tucked away in a plastic container. The nearly 3,000,000 folks who call Kansas their "home" are sitting down to supper about now as they pass the peas and potatoes to all around the table. Next year come January 29th they will celebrate once again as their state turns yet another year older, another year more special those who live there.
And in this Kay County town of Newkirk, there will always be a Kansas girl who never forgot where she came from and who remembered always the people in the land of "somewhere over the rainbow".
Kansas, you were a great place to be born in and an even greater place to have called "home".
Happy birthday kid!
Many more!
In 2013 that all changed.
My first few months away from home as a newlywed living in the beautiful San Juan mountains of southwestern Colorado were painful. I felt like a flower that had been ripped from its normal spot in the garden and haphazardly transplanted against the far side of the garage. It hurt like heck to lose the familiarity that over half of a century of life as a Kansan had afforded me. There were plenty of trips between Montrose and Hutchinson that first year or so as little by little, I found my way in a new "neighborhood".
Any chance that I had to go home for a visit was taken by me.
It was tough but I made it, thanks to Mike and a whole passel full of folks in the little town of Olathe, Colorado.
I've been away from Kansas for nearly 6 1/2 years now, only going home for a visit now and then. Although I no longer feel that horrible ache in my heart because I'm not living there, I still miss certain things from time to time. I have family in Kansas and a lifetime of friends who meant the world to me when I lived there and who mean even more to me now that I am gone.
Some things will never change.
Mike and I moved closer to my "old home" this past spring when we bought a house here in Newkirk, Oklahoma. Now we are no more than a 10 minute drive to the Oklahoma-Kansas border, a journey that we make sometimes twice a week. There's nothing like traveling to Arkansas City and going to shop at Dillons each week or even hopping into the car and journeying up to Wichita or even home to Hutchinson from time to time as well. For the first time in 7 years, we can do that now. What a joy it is to see the sign that welcomes me back each time I head north!
Yes, the candles have been blown out by now and the last slice of birthday cake is more than likely tucked away in a plastic container. The nearly 3,000,000 folks who call Kansas their "home" are sitting down to supper about now as they pass the peas and potatoes to all around the table. Next year come January 29th they will celebrate once again as their state turns yet another year older, another year more special those who live there.
And in this Kay County town of Newkirk, there will always be a Kansas girl who never forgot where she came from and who remembered always the people in the land of "somewhere over the rainbow".
Kansas, you were a great place to be born in and an even greater place to have called "home".
Happy birthday kid!
Many more!
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