Comments on: Home For Thanksgiving

By: Sean Mulligan

Sean Mulligan — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:14:43 +0000

This is a very funny, yet true post! I love it!!

By: Beth Dunn

Beth Dunn — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:47:12 +0000

Well, you guys are obviously the exception. I can’t think of a nicer family to spend holidays with. (It’s just that you’re so darn far away!)

By: richard schultz

richard schultz — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:15:27 +0000

I happen to know many people who actually enjoy going back to their family homes for the pure joy of being with family and friends and amazingly do not feel like they have to run off to a bar or coffeshop within the first two hours.

By: erica

erica — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:07:53 +0000

love this piece on so many levels- esp. your ability to transition so seemlessly from your own voice to that of the person you are running into in the coffeeshop.

like you, i LOVE the area i live in. i probably never thought i would live here as an adult, but it was a choice i consciously made, so i am happy here. i know younger people (certainly no longer teens) who seem resentful of all the Cape is NOT, for whatever reason they are currently living here and don’t like it for what it is. i love the Cape for what it is.

i’ve also had the experience of chatting with friends who come home and are bitter about the area. those reasons are their own, but i’ve definitely had the impression they also feel that because i live in the same town i was raised in, my life is the same as it was. as if i go to the same places, work the same jobs and have the same friends. (though, i am still a loyal patron of my teenage coffeeshop and bring my Macbk now;)

indeed, the connections to your past and your community are there, but they do not exist in the same capacity. it is part of what i love about the area, that deep-seated connection, but it is certainly not stagnant. perhaps the portals evolve, too !?

i wrote a short piece a few years ago titled Welcome Back Codder that touched on some of these same themes. in the writing section of my website

By: Kathy Jast

Kathy Jast — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:34:09 +0000

Thanks for writing this. When I go home to Cleveland it is always so strangely familiar and unfamiliar at once. I don’t know anyone there anymore other than my folks who don’t live in my old neighborhood anymore. But, it would be amazing to recognize an old high school classmate after all this time.
Hometowns are portals to the past, where do those who live in their hometowns find the portals?

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:40:03 +0000

Such a lovely, touching piece that really gets to the heart of the complex feelings of being confronted with our teenage pasts. I actually dread going back to my hometown, and feel like a simple trip to the one grocery store in town, on the day before Thanksgiving, is psychological torture. I never know where the townies who used to bully me are going to pop up, and despite my getting out and living in a big, fancy city, with a big, fancy artist’s lifestyle, just the sight of those old bullies (who often turn out to be on the town’s police force – GAH!) can take me right back to the emotional place I was when I was 16 and simply hoping to survive a walk down the high school hallway. Complex indeed.

By: Angela Quarles

Angela Quarles — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:33:00 +0000

OMG, I loved this post! I live in a small town (Mobile, AL) that is actually the hometown for others here and it’s very interesting to witness their feelings about it. Some have returned after going out into the wide world (like you) and absolutely love living here and see the same great things about living here that I do and is why they returned. Others haven’t left yet and they hate the town and look down their nose at those here, thinking that we can’t possibly want to actually LIVE here (Yes, yes I do. And YES I’ve lived in big cities like NYC, Atlanta, and lived abroad too. Gasp!)

In two days, though, I’ll be going back to my hometown (Sarasota, FL) and will be the ghost haunting those sidewalks.

By: Erin McCarthy

Erin McCarthy — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:38:42 +0000

This is awesome. I always want to run into folks when I go home for Thanksgiving, but somehow never do…

By: erica

erica — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:34:44 +0000

absolutely LOVE this.