Moving.....again

"Are you in the military?" I've been asked that question more times than I can count. I've moved 21 times in the last 30 years (as I sit and count I'm shocked too!) You'd think by now I'd be a pro and have a real plan of action for moving. No such thing. Being born a redhead brings about a few personality quirks that forever shall remain. One is, I'd rather be having fun somewhere else than doing this. Two, I won't give up my childish attitude about item number one. Somewhere I hear the refrain to "I won't grow up...."

I've blamed this moving around action on a particular situation in my growing up years. Living in Detroit we witnessed many changes in a city that struggled to truly move forward like Chicago and Atlanta have done. I'm not an economist but this city of my birth seemed to really slump when white flight occured after the riots in the 60's. It was also a city that never diversified to other forms of economical support other than auto related employment. We didn't move out of the city during that time but eventually many of us grew up, got married and moved on. However, as our parents moved on too there was no longer the foundation marks of the neighborhood where we grew up. We couldn't go back and see that the Carey's still lived in the corner house, and the Martin's are next door with grandkids visiting often. The Rutkowski's and my parents were some of the last to leave but I often feel like I'm standing in a room looking all around me and wondering where everyone went. I long for connectedness and have struggled to find that place again. It's harder when you grow older as people don't let you in as easily as they did when I was four and would walk up to others and introduce myself.

"Hi, my name is Laura and I'm four and I live in a brown house. Want to play with me?" It just doesn't sound the same now..."Hi, my name is Laura and I'm 52 and I ......."

Naaaah.

I'll just get back to my moving.