The Old Hometown.

I spent my weekend in my rural Iowa hometown. So many people I know complain about the place where they grew up. Marcus, Iowa is not without its faults, but there are lots of good things about growing up where I did. When I got married three years ago, I wrote about 425 thank you notes for my bridal shower. That's just about half of the population of the town (accounting for most of the women). To me, that demonstrated care and concern for one of the town's daughters, and the kindness has not been forgotten.

This weekend, attending my cousin's wedding, I was reminded about the charm of my hometown. I saw people I hadn't seen or chatted with in years, and enjoyed my conversation with those folks. We live thousands of miles apart and may not have tons in common, but we do share our memories of life in that little town. It's interesting to see my classmates grown up, many of them with families. It's a really different dynamic than it was to be around those people as high school colleagues or even as college students. It's a little surreal to sit in a bar with people who you remember from first grade, discussing the possibility of child rearing and extolling the virtues of small-town beer prices.

Times change, and so do people. I hope that my fond memories of last weekend won't fade. I hope I'll be able to remember that my hometown was a nice place to grow up. Good people still live, work and raise they children there. For now, I'm back in the steamy South, but I'll be looking forward to my another trip back home, y'all.