Category Archive

Well folks, we’re back in Rochester for a family reunion and have rented a beautiful cottage on Honeoye Lake. The reunion went great, the weather has been unbelievably perfect (one full week of no rain and sunny skies) and my daughter and I are having ourselves a great time.

However, in some ways it’s been a little sad. We brought the memories of the way things were tucked neatly inside the zippered compartments of our carry on luggage. But they didn’t quite fit the reality once we unpacked the car.

People have changed and moved on with their lives, places we lived and played are overgrown or deteriorated. And everything seems so, well - unfamiliar! You spend a good deal of your life somewhere, then you move away and within a very short time you can’t remember how to get from A to B.  

(Watch the drama unfold as I stumble down this philosophical path…)

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has ever been told, “Silly girl. Dontcha know? You can’t ever go home again!”

But it’s easy and so self-indulgent to glamorize a place when you’re living half a continent away!

Ever wonder if perhaps it would have better not to know?

Nawww! And here’s why!

Reasons Why It’s Great to Go Home Again

(Hummed to the tune of “You know you’re from Rochester when…”)

1. I look at things with fresh eyes and see the beauty I didn’t fully appreciate when I lived here. Like the rolling hills, sparkling lakes and amazing green-ness of Upstate NY. In Colorado, it gets pretty brown and dried out by the end of the summer and water is always in short supply!

2. We love the roadside fruit and veggie stands. We don’t have them where I live, so it’s a real delight to know the stuff you’re buying has come straight from the field.

3. Coming from a farming family, there’s nothing quite so satisfying as seeing rows upon rows of corn stalks waving in the breeze and rows upon rows of freshly plowed soil. (We have tons of rock and sagebrush in our end of Colorado, but they don’t easily bend to the will of a plow!)

4. We don’t have grape pies. I can highly recommend Cindy’s Pies in Naples on #5 Academy Street.

5. It’s gratifying to hear that a whole new younger generation (much younger!) are going to the same grammar school you attended. (St. Pius X School) Especially in an era where Catholic schools are closing right and left, I’m particularly happy to see my grade school alma mater is still alive and well.

6. Former co-workers at the Rochester Institute of Technology haven’t changed a bit! And they were gracious enough to say the same about me! (Thanks Sue and Paula! It was wonderful to see you both again!)

7. You realize how much you’ve learned since you last lived in a particular place. Dare I say, you realize how much you’ve matured? When does one know you’ve become a “grown-up” anyway? When you’ve got children of your own? Grandchildren? The name of a plastic surgeon in your rolodex?

8. You trot your young adults around to all the historical places your parents took you and they’re actually interested! Surprisingly, you learn a few things along the way too!

9. You see the improvements made within the community that didn’t exist when you lived here like roadways, college expansions, playgrounds, etc. You also realize that every community struggles with crime, gangs and drugs, so where you came from and where you now live aren’t really so different in that regard.

10. It’s comforting to know that family are still family. No matter how far we travel or how long we’ve been gone, it only takes one look into the faces of aunts, uncles, neices and cousins to see reflections of grandparents long gone. And then you realize how many lives and how much living has gone into making us who we are!

Please spread the word about this blog to anyone who attended or taught at Cardinal Mooney High School in Rochester NY. We welcome your stories, photos and updates!

Laura, writing from Honeoye Lake until Saturday when we head to Burlington VT!