The title is reinforced in the denouement of the novel in which Webber realizes: "You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.
We visit places we have lived, trying to recapture the good vibes from an earlier time.
Sometimes there is a necessary reason for the trip. In our case the other week, there was the need to oversee the replacement of the A/C system in our condo. Our tenant was in Atlanta, so we went down. Carolyn and I had not been on the Island since early in 2020, before Covid and the need to stay home.
Regardless of the reason, the above Wolfe quotation came immediately to my mind as we looked around the island, met with friends, and generally played the tourist, even as we lived in my old condo with someone else's stuff.
As the new decal on the back window of the car represents the Island of St. Simons, a great location on the coast of Southeast Georgia.
Mayre Lou and I came here to live in the Fall of 1995, buying a house and living here 23 years together, before she passed away in 2018. With a short hiatus in Blacksburg, VA, 2005-2008, this was our home. First of all in a house at West Lake, and then in the condo at Grandview, purchased when we returned from Virginia.
Carolyn and I were married in 2019, and so she had never lived here. For her it was a vacation, a chance to be at the beach, and to see friends from previous visits. For me, it was a time to catch up with friends, visit some familiar places, eat in familiar eateries as well as new ones, and see how the Island had changed since I left there in 2019.
Together we:
Ate with friends and then went back to their home (which was the one we bought in 1995 and sold to them in 2005). Herb and Ann are dear friends even though they would not sell us back the house when we returned to the Island.
Went to church on Sunday. A church that began back in 1996, where we joined in 1997 when it was meeting in a living room, where we watched it grow in numbers and influence, and where we served with so many others over the years.
Ate with a golfing buddy at a new restaurant, and talked people, golf and changes. Thanks Fritz.
Visited in the home of a couple I knew, where the man had just finished walking the America Discovery Trail, across the U.S. He walked 6000 miles over a three year period from Delaware to San Francisco, a feat I could hardly imagine. His pictures, descriptions and stories were amazing. Thanks Rog and Anne.
Went to the beach for an ocean sunrise. The sun was hiding for awhile, but we knew from the clouds it was back there somewhere. Salt air and beach sand is a great combination.
A couple who had lived next to me in the condo, and had since moved to a house close by, invited us for brunch after church. It was good to catch up with them, and we were especially pleased that she had invited another first floor condo resident to join us. This lady had recently lost her husband, who was also a great friend and photography mentor to me. She was also the one who pointed us to the new logo for St. Simons that is pictured above. Thanks Jeff & Leigh Ann and Susie.
Visited in the home of an older couple (great Scott, they are older than we are), talking of church times, home group, Mexican Train socials, golf, food, and the health issues of getting older. Thanks Westy and Barby.
Another time spent, with happy memories from the past, was with our condo neighbor, who had since moved to a Senior living facility on the Island. Thanks Anne.
Looking back on the week we spent on SSI, finds it filled with visits with friends, eating with friends, church with friends, and exploring the Island noting changes. What we remember most are the people we interacted with in some way.
We can't go back home in the sense that these are the same people we knew some years ago. True they are the same people, but people are not static. They change, their situations change, and their environs change. The perceptions, those thoughts that we kept in our minds from the time that we inhabited the same space, are no longer valid in the current time.
But ,while it is great to remember the older times, it is good to see the changes in lives and situations. To bring our memories up to date and connect again keeps our lives in touch.
And God still gives us the sunsets over the marsh.
(Photo by Duke Smith, photographer extraordinaire)
A remembrance that somehow seems never to change.
And a reminder of His Love and Care.
