Take a walk down memory lane….

I simply can’t drive in Pennsylvania without being overwhelmed with nostalgia. The “good old days”. I never lived here but I spent many summers here as a child visiting my vast number of relatives. My grandmothers and many aunts, uncles and cousins all resided in this beautiful place. Oh how I looked forward to those visits. It was a different time and place, no worries and fear like the world we live in today.  I always feel like I’m coming home, even though it was never home in a physical sense just in a sense of family and belonging.  So many memories just flood my mind as we drive. The hilly winding roads, the big houses so close together and so close to the road. I remember riding bikes with my cousins from their house in town, to my grandmother’s house 3 miles away in the country. Oh how I loved that ride, struggling up the hills and then coasting down the other side.  I know I could never do it today! My grandmother’s house was surrounded by her beautiful flowers. I think I inherited my love of gardening from her. I remember those lovely holly hocks in a myriad of colors beside the porch. I spent many hours on the porch swing chatting with my grandmother while surrounded by her beautiful hanging baskets and other flowers. I now cherish those precious memories. I shared so many interests with her. She loved flowers, crocheting and had 7 children, just like me! Her name was Joy and we named one of our daughters after her.

This very short trip to Pennsylvania was an impromptu trip for my husband to buy some tools for his business. We drove here yesterday and going home today. It’s a 7 hour trip each way. I came to help with the driving but I also love the trip down memory lane that coming here evokes.

We just celebrated thanksgiving and I knew I would be exhausted after cooking dinner for 25 people and all the massive clean up. I also knew that it would be a special treat to come to this beautiful state and have some down time to just relax whole driving and reflect on life.

As I was driving yesterday, I just thought about all those trips in the past where I looked forward with such anticipation to lazy summer days filled with extended family activities. As we drove under a beautiful bridge yesterday I told my husband that bridge was my landmark that we were almost through Ohio!

I wavered about coming on this trip due to the exhaustion of Thanksgiving. The thought of missing an opportunity to visit a place I loved so dearly as a child won out! Many of my loved ones are gone now but I’m grateful for this trip down memory lane. Sometimes we need to just stop our minds from the worry and stress of this life and reflect on all the good things in the past and let it give us a mental boost to face the future. We are on our way home now and as we drive it is with a grateful, thankful heart  for that short sweet nostalgic visit that lifted my spirits!