Visiting Home.
So I have a week off work and decided to spend one of those days visiting my second home-town.
It's smaller than I remembered. No really. I was in this town for grade 3, 4 and 5. ages 8 to 10 years old. At that age I got about by either walking or riding a bike around. My family used to own a servo [ Gas station for you Americans reading this ] before moving to a different house with a workyard attached to it. My father did mechanic work at both locations and my mother ran the servo side for that year, and did odd-jobs at the second house.
When I first moved to the town I struggled with a bit of the school stuff, I was slow to make friends and only had a couple in school, nothing as strong as the friends from my other home-town. but for a small farming town, it wasn't bad. during the wheat harvesting season there'd be trucks coming through to handle grain loads before they were on-forwarded, and the winters were pretty reliable. The town never had a storm that Perth sees, nor anything like what my other home-town gets. It was a pretty cozy place really, my siblings found our own entertainment either with one another or with other activities.
I look back and chuckle, because when I moved back to my other home-town again, I found the intelligence level of those around me to be lacking. they weren't outright dumb but I was slightly ahead of the education standards. I figured the standard of education was held higher for the most part but whatever, I settled into being an average-achiever since the shift, on the books anyway. But my education isn't the topic at hand.
The topic at hand is the town itself. Things sure had changed, even if slightly since my time there. modern cars looked out of place to the old houses and roads, landmarks were still present but between the youthful view of this town, and coming back as an adult, everything felt... Small. the roads seemed so much shorter, the space more tightly packed. I can't say I've had any real fond memories from the town, so there was no sense of nostalgia visiting it again. Due to it raining while I was there, and being a working week-day, I only interacted with the lady managing one of the gas-stations [ the old one my family used to run had since shut down and was converted to a house, that was weird to see ]
But even driving past my old primary school, I almost felt like getting out and just walking through, which would not be proper, the school was in class and some late-twenties bearded chap wandering through would not go down too well I'd say. But in spite of this, I looked at the places I used to go, the foot-ball oval, some of the streets and so on, and while I remember things, I'm just struck with how close together it all actually was.
I concluded that the town had nothing really to offer me aside from a couple of tales of my childhood. In of itself, the town serves as an on-forwarding destination for nearby farms to pass their grains through checks before getting to processing places, like a weet-bix factory as a blunt example. I don't know how many people in my age-group, from my childhood were still in the town, the weather wasn't good enough to check. so I resigned myself to being satisfied that at least it's not a ghost town, and that my curiosity of what has happened over the years has been satisfied
So I went to Dongara for lunch and had a bacon and egg toastie :D Dongara also has stood the test of time over it's last 15+ years, some things have changed, but a lot hasn't, it was kind of comforting in it's own way I suppose. Being in the city, having been raised as a simple town kid, all these changes, adjustments and so on that happen in a city drive me up the wall, everyone pushing to advance without stopping to see what they have. Yet these towns are seen as backwards because of their 'if it aint broke don't fix it' mentality, not caring for innovation if the return doesn't outweigh the investment enough.
For me, visiting my old home-town was less about looking back into my history, and more about reminding myself of the sights and smells of times gone, to put the office politics infested waters of my workplace behind me and do what I like to do, get out and see with my own two eyes. in that respect, waking up early, the fuel money, dealing with slow drivers on the highway, all were worth it for me to say 'I went back to my hometown, and it is still nothing special' XD I'm glad in a way, because if it had some explosion or revolution, I would of missed it, but no. it's business as usual and it's not big enough for someone of my limitations to fit in, but that's ok, because I still don't hold it dear enough to care.
Visiting home? Smaller than I remember? that's fine. while it feels smaller, it's still as exciting as it ever wasn't. I'm happy to have spent the fuel money to remind myself of this. maybe another 10 years I'll do it again. who knows.
It's smaller than I remembered. No really. I was in this town for grade 3, 4 and 5. ages 8 to 10 years old. At that age I got about by either walking or riding a bike around. My family used to own a servo [ Gas station for you Americans reading this ] before moving to a different house with a workyard attached to it. My father did mechanic work at both locations and my mother ran the servo side for that year, and did odd-jobs at the second house.
When I first moved to the town I struggled with a bit of the school stuff, I was slow to make friends and only had a couple in school, nothing as strong as the friends from my other home-town. but for a small farming town, it wasn't bad. during the wheat harvesting season there'd be trucks coming through to handle grain loads before they were on-forwarded, and the winters were pretty reliable. The town never had a storm that Perth sees, nor anything like what my other home-town gets. It was a pretty cozy place really, my siblings found our own entertainment either with one another or with other activities.
I look back and chuckle, because when I moved back to my other home-town again, I found the intelligence level of those around me to be lacking. they weren't outright dumb but I was slightly ahead of the education standards. I figured the standard of education was held higher for the most part but whatever, I settled into being an average-achiever since the shift, on the books anyway. But my education isn't the topic at hand.
The topic at hand is the town itself. Things sure had changed, even if slightly since my time there. modern cars looked out of place to the old houses and roads, landmarks were still present but between the youthful view of this town, and coming back as an adult, everything felt... Small. the roads seemed so much shorter, the space more tightly packed. I can't say I've had any real fond memories from the town, so there was no sense of nostalgia visiting it again. Due to it raining while I was there, and being a working week-day, I only interacted with the lady managing one of the gas-stations [ the old one my family used to run had since shut down and was converted to a house, that was weird to see ]
But even driving past my old primary school, I almost felt like getting out and just walking through, which would not be proper, the school was in class and some late-twenties bearded chap wandering through would not go down too well I'd say. But in spite of this, I looked at the places I used to go, the foot-ball oval, some of the streets and so on, and while I remember things, I'm just struck with how close together it all actually was.
I concluded that the town had nothing really to offer me aside from a couple of tales of my childhood. In of itself, the town serves as an on-forwarding destination for nearby farms to pass their grains through checks before getting to processing places, like a weet-bix factory as a blunt example. I don't know how many people in my age-group, from my childhood were still in the town, the weather wasn't good enough to check. so I resigned myself to being satisfied that at least it's not a ghost town, and that my curiosity of what has happened over the years has been satisfied
So I went to Dongara for lunch and had a bacon and egg toastie :D Dongara also has stood the test of time over it's last 15+ years, some things have changed, but a lot hasn't, it was kind of comforting in it's own way I suppose. Being in the city, having been raised as a simple town kid, all these changes, adjustments and so on that happen in a city drive me up the wall, everyone pushing to advance without stopping to see what they have. Yet these towns are seen as backwards because of their 'if it aint broke don't fix it' mentality, not caring for innovation if the return doesn't outweigh the investment enough.
For me, visiting my old home-town was less about looking back into my history, and more about reminding myself of the sights and smells of times gone, to put the office politics infested waters of my workplace behind me and do what I like to do, get out and see with my own two eyes. in that respect, waking up early, the fuel money, dealing with slow drivers on the highway, all were worth it for me to say 'I went back to my hometown, and it is still nothing special' XD I'm glad in a way, because if it had some explosion or revolution, I would of missed it, but no. it's business as usual and it's not big enough for someone of my limitations to fit in, but that's ok, because I still don't hold it dear enough to care.
Visiting home? Smaller than I remember? that's fine. while it feels smaller, it's still as exciting as it ever wasn't. I'm happy to have spent the fuel money to remind myself of this. maybe another 10 years I'll do it again. who knows.