Thursday, January 17, 2008

My Hometown....

I was born and raised in the southern Illinois town of Greenville - situated on Interstate 70 - about 45 miles west of St. Louis. It's a small town with a courthouse in the middle of the town square. My dad worked at the Post Office and my mom ran a successful day-care center out of our home. She was very popular - even had a waiting list for her services. I was in Junior High before my brother was born. All my friends were sooooo jealous!!!!

My parents loved to camp and we'd take our trailer and station wagon and head to Florida for a few weeks every summer. I was a spoiled, only child for the first twelve years of my life and then Frank came along and changed my life. My grandmother lived with us and she taught me to crochet and embroider. My mom was an excellent cook, but unfortunately her expertise didn't wear off on me.

I went to Grade School, Junior High, High School and College all in this town. I met Bob during our Junior year of high school, when his family moved from the big city (St. Louis) to Greenville. He became best friends with my best friend's boyfriend - so it was inevitable that we'd be matched up. We dated through our Senior year and through college - even though he went away to play baseball.
We eventually married, bought our first house and made our home in Greenville, where Carrie, Bobby, Katie and Colleen were all born.

My parents retired and took my little brother and moved to Florida not long after Bob and I married. In turn, I became extremely close with his parents and his siblings. Today, when we return to Greenville for visits - I really feel like I'm "home". There's the library I used to walk to every few days, the old hardware store that I worked at during college, the Post Office where I'd stop to ask my dad for some money, the movie theater where I had my first date, the high school where I'd cheer on the COMETS, the cemetary where we used to go sledding, and my old house on Summer Street. The older I get, the more vivid those memories become.

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