Wind so fierce it felt like being slapped across the face, the noise was so intense like a thousand herds of buffalo charging. It was so dark but I could see the headlights of many cars all stopped on the road. Running for safety, we hit the ground and held fast to the grass as the trees bent over our bodies as if to shield us from debris. I remember that tornado as I think about my hometown.
Orange, reds, yellows all the wonderful colors of the trees during the fall. Rain one day sunny the next. Green grass and trees as far as you can see. Snow and unbelievably cold weather that could make your car doors freeze shut. I live in California now, which is why I miss my hometown so much. California is always the same.
Following the path that led through the woods and down to the river, where all my friends would meet to hang out on the weekends. The rock cliff was so narrow I do not know how we always managed to get across it. We had no fear it is where I shared my dreams with my closest friends, where I thought I wanted to write music.
A shared kiss with someone that I would date a few years later and fall in love with. An abandoned house of sorts, more like a clubhouse. Across the street was the laundry mat. All of us kids would sit on the hill and hang out at the house; it was our secret place.
Grandma's house it is where I lived for four years, my favorite place, I would get up in the mornings and find poems on the table that my grandma had written me that day.
Snow falling and the sound of Christmas music, all the family would come over for Christmas Eve. Easter would sometimes be sunny but with a chill and we would all go outside to gather around the basketball hoop and hope that our team won. Thanksgiving the smell of turkey cooking when you walked in the door, we waited for the men to come home from hunting to see if they had shot a deer that day.
For years I would go home and visit my grandparents, my grandfather passed an important job down to my son, feeding the deer that were in the back yard. You must get the corn and bang the cans together and then the deer would come.
These simple things are what make me remember my hometown I think I will plan a trip home this summer, because while writing this I realized that I miss home so much but just thinking about the memories makes me smile.
