Moving Memories
Twenty-one years ago this month, I moved to this state, to the house I'm currently living in. This is the longest I've lived anywhere; the previous record was my twelve year stay in New Jersey, but even that was not all at one residence.
Shortly after ending my brief misadventure into marriage in the early 80s, I moved back in with my father to give me time to get my shit together, now that I was a single parent. At that time, he was living in Texas, and I adjusted fairly quickly to the area, though I'd lived my entire life on the East Coast up until this point.
Not too long after I moved in, my father retired from his job and decided to move back to South Carolina, where he'd been born and raised. His mother was still alive and he wanted to spend whatever remaining years she had left near her. Because I wanted my son to know his grandfather and because I needed his help in raising my son, I decided to move with him. I wasn't keen about living in the Deep South, which was and is a much more conservative region than where I was raised in the Northeast. However, I was happy to return to the East Coast, never having felt comfortable living so far from the ocean in North Texas.
In early July 1985, my father, son, and I headed east out from Dallas on I-20. My Dad towed the U-haul with all my belongings with his huge Cadillac, while my 4 year old son and I followed in my small Mercury Capri. The trip was largely uneventful, with an overnight stop at a Holiday Inn in Meridian Mississippi.
The only vaguely interesting thing to happen was when a Mississippi State Trooper stopped my father on I=20 for driving too fast while towing a U-haul. I remember pulling to the shoulder of the road behind my father and the trooper and the cop coming back to my car to tell me that it wasn't me he was stopping and me explaining to him that I'd wait; that I was traveling with the car he'd stopped.
When we arrived in SC, we stayed at my father's new home, sleeping on the floor in the empty house in sleeping bags. My father had come out early with me and my belongings because I was scheduled to take the aptitude test for the police department I would be later employed by. His new wife had remained behind in Texas, attending to last minute details for their move, which would come a couple of weeks later.
I remember having a splitting headache as I took the aptitude test, but it didn't adversely affect my score -- I got the highest score they'd seen in 20 years. Nevertheless, I had to wait seven months before I was actually hired on.
I moved into my own house a few days after the police test, with only the bare necessities for my son and I. We each had a bed, a couch, a TV, and a kitchen table and chairs, but little else other than our clothing and personal belongings. I didn't even have a refridgerator, as the van lines my father had hired to move his household belongings would be bringing that and other furniture when my father and his wife would be moving into their house a few weeks later.
My son is nearly as old now as I was when we first moved into this house. It seems hard to believe that so many years have gone by and I'm still here.
I think that U-Hauls have "40 MPH" or something written on their fenders.
Like anyone abides by that--I've been passed on the interstate by people
flying along with them all the time. Then again, I'd hate to see one
topple and scatter furniture all over the highway!
You sound sad. I'm sorry. It does go by so fast. I think we all have things
we like and dislike about where we live. I hate this Godforsaken city in
the summer, and wish I was living up in the NE corner of the state (in the
mountains). *sigh*
I've only lived in the same state all my life. It's amazing how quickly
time passes by isn't it? Every place that a person can live has it's pros
and cons.
And each year just goes faster. We moved into this house when my
11-year-old was 12 days old. It's the longest I've lived in one house.
YIKES, Paula! You moved with a two week old baby???? Argggh.
Well, I'm about to move but I can guarantee I won't be staying in that
apartment for more than a year or so. I'd like to buy a house rather than
throwing my rent away, and then there's no telling how long I'll stay
there.
