Happy Fourth of July 2012

   Happy to be back to my humble home and so is my dog, who has been sacked out on the couch since returning from our six day Virginia trip. She was such a busy bee at Rebecca and Bob's playing and growling at their dog Jewel, the yard dogs, hummingbirds, horse, plus the intense thunderstorm that came through that I figure she will sleep and recoup for a few days! She has hardly left "her" couch since coming home.

  Our homecoming (to Royston) was dramatic with a greeting by a severe thunderstorm complete with pea sized hail! Tried to sit it out but gave up and just popped up the little umbrella to come on inside. This was a good trip.
  The reunion was a very small gathering, but that was okay as the record temperatures of over hundred lent us to all hanging out in my Aunt Emma's home (the old cement block house on the hill that was the site of many childhood awesome memories which included my Granny Ginny and Grandpadad Cavin, my great grandparents. Things have changed much and modernized and yet there are remnants of the old. The old outhouse building is still standing, although leaning and decaying and sure to be fallen over in not too long. There is much more left here to remember than on my Momma's side of the family up in Big Stone Gap. Rose Hill, Virginia is still a working farming community so it hasn't changed as drastically over the years.
  Big Stone Gap and the surrounding area was built up primarily around the coal mining industry and it HAS deteriorated more and more over the years. There are still some beautiful old homes there, even my Great Grandparent's home is still well kept, although there is not the slightest trace of my Grandmother's home, orchards, hedge, barn, garden,....nothing. The house was there for many years but the last owner torched it...my poor nephew, a fireman had to put out that fire. Now there is a nice brick home built on that site. The new owners leveled the place and all the hedges and trees, I mean ALL of them it is the most barren plain place now, tidy but no personality at all. And the land itself was divided up and sold off so that where the barn and garden was is something else and there is a Kentucky Fried chicken and other tacky stuff where there used to be a garden.
   The saddest thing about the town to me is how they completely knocked down and destroyed the old school buildings and stone wall that surrounded the land. The hotel is gone, the downtown area of Big Stone Gap, is a sad townscape where all the former shops are pretty much closed up, my cousin said Wal-Mart pretty much sealed that deal. There is still the drugstore and soda fountain my Mother had once worked at as a girl but that is about it. We could not even figure out where the old movie theater was now? It appeared to be still there but so "remodeled" that you couldn't be sure. This was once a thriving little town, now it seems to just be limping along. But the church where my folks married is still there and still active, though not so many members as it once had.
    The occasion of my trip was planned around the Cavin Reunion, but it just happened this was the weekend my Cousin Larry Lane had scheduled to hold the Estate Sale for my late AUnt Peggy's home and belongings. Oh boy did I hear in my head the Donna Hughes Song as a backdrop on my two visits up to Derby. It was an occasion to see my cousin Marianna and her husband Skip Davidson from Ohio and of course Larry and Marcia Lane, who live in Charlotte, N.C. and to purchase a few mementos of my Aunt and as it turns out of my Grandmother (bought several aprons I am pretty sure she had sewn) I could not afford any of the big stuff. The saddest thing to me was seeing her china, which she never actually ever used but began buying for herself after she'd gotten her son through college sold off, the asking price was 685. a bargain for such a full set but too much for any of us relatives...wound up making a deal on the last day and selling it to a stranger for about 300.....anyway. sad sad day to see and let go really of the last tangible bits of what this time last year was a dear lady's home and life. I am so thankful for the two visits I had with her last summer, one in the hospital and then one at her home. She sat down with Becky and I and we looked at pictures, if it weren't for that day I would not now have a pic of my late Grandfather and Grandmother, as she allowed us to borrow and copy some of those treasured pics. She is the last from my Mom's side of the children of Mary and Henry Lane or spouses. Actually Peggy was an aunt by marriage.
  At the estate sale I met my cousin and his wife from the Cavin side, as we are FB buddies now. At one time the Cavin reunion had over a hundred people attend and we had to hold it down in the tobacco barn. That was back in 1992 when we began. This year there was only three of us from out of town and only Angie and I were not of the immediate family of either Aunt Trula or Aunt Emma. Aunt Emma said she'd guessed that after Uncle J.C. died that they would quit coming. We began to click off all the ones who have now passed away, my Daddy and both of his brothers, Grandma Dorothy, Grandma Audrey, Great Aunt Ethel, Cousin Curtis, Cousin Virginia, and Cousin Helen....all these folks had children that came to see them and honor them....now it has dwindled down quite a bit. But I loved spending time with my two great aunts, my cousins, and aunt Angie. It as low key but the food was as good as ever! And the new crop of little cousins kept the gathering laughing and smiling. We could be very sad at missing so many of our loved ones, but we were not instead it was a happy time to be with those who still remember the same good memories as we do. It was also a good time to really forge the connections to the younger cousins and build some memories with them too.
  Okay so I think I have documented the trip. This was another trip without my daughter, she is less and less a part of my family experiences and more and more doing her own thing with more exciting friends. It hurt my feelings at first and I missed her for sure, but I didn't miss her complaining like she had done for most of the visit this time last year. She actually did not go with me to visit any of my family last year, except Becky and then she pretty much stayed in bed all day and up on the laptop all night... no, I did not miss that behavior. And in remembering it and that you can lead a horse to water etc. etc. well I have learned I can travel alone, with my little dog and we are okay. God is the co-pilot and the true lover of my soul and if nothing happens without His approval then the best I can do is to try to hear Him.
   Compared to last year, I liked seeing my family but I would love to be at Daytona Beach today! I am happy that I have quit smoking! I am not happy that I have gained 40 pounds! I am happy that my face is no longer completely frozen. I am happy that my child is better emotionally than she was this time last year.
  Perhaps by this time next year, I will have had my teeth restored and lost at least 20 of the extra pounds I put on? Oh I do hope so, as long as the latter is from healthy loss and not illness. Always temper what I wish or hope for these days, as if I dare not wish for anything? Yeah, might be a sign I have some more recovering to do as yet!
  May God bless any of you dears who may be reading my blog.