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Going Back Home


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As an army brat I didn't have a "home" location, so when we had finished our WOW year in 75 I married and moved to her home state. does that count? shoot, we have been in the same house now which I built in 84 how much more home can one be?

Socks- good story. From my experience growing up, uprooting kids is not so much a big deal as it is made up to be. What they lose in lifelong relations is made up for by the opportunity to meet new people, live new experiences and learn new ideas. Glad you made the move.

~HAP

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my sister tortured herself when they had to move and their kids were at an age when you don't want to do it

they are all so great and have turned out so well

i think it's because home is always where love is

i could go on for a million years how well her kids are doing

love,

ex

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Good thoughts ... it was mostly the time in TWI that did harm I think, more than location. My last twi stop I chose on my own, and was really getting out for the last twi year in 86. But I stayed in New Orleans another 14 years and liked the place.

The good ol' window washing business was fine, and allowed me free time to play a lot. Volleyball, fshing, sailing, and some traditional New Orleans food and events. And beer. :beer: I met several groups of friends. Then I moved "home" partly to help family, and partly to get away from the routine. Fortunately that meant I also mised Katrina.

Things here are good, but like some said, if you miss events for 30 years, it is really not quite the same. It really feels like my friends are mostly still in New Orleans. I'm still wide open on possibilities for the next 35 years ... which I like. I can watch the deer and coyotes, grow some grapes and make some wine ... should be fun ...

I don't feel compelled to "accomplish" anything ... more just want to enjoy things ... of course retirement to a place where things are cheaper and climate is perfect might be nice ... so far I like the midwest ... it is nice to have seasonal changes.

But in ten years, maybe India will be the retirement mecca ... who knows what might lie ahead ? I don't have enough close family here to stay for too long, just for that. I'll stay if I'm still happy here ... maybe travel some with this as home base. I could assign myself to be a WOW rover, and come visit some of you guys ... :biglaugh: But really, there are people I would like to visit ... and places to see ...

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don't feel compelled to "accomplish" anything ... more just want to enjoy things ... of course retirement to a place where things are cheaper and climate is perfect might be nice ... so far I like the midwest ... it is nice to have seasonal changes

i love everything said except for the midwest part

let me know when you're willing to give on that one

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Absolutely, I'm still here in Texas going on 29 years. I was sent WOW to Huntsville in 1979. I did not really have anything to go back "home" to, so I stuck it out here in Texas.

No regrets, things have actually turned out quite well.

Funny thing is, before we received our WOW assignments, I had a conversation with God, and said I would go anywhere but TEXAS.

Oh, and a couple of female WOW's would be nice.

Four guys and Huntsville, TX. (One of the guys was from El Paso, I not sure he was happy about being assigned to Texas).

Oh well

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i think it's because home is always where love is

That is the truth of the matter, Ex.

I am 33 and not including things like moving from one room on the Indiana Campus to another and one dorm to another in college, I have moved from one house to another 21 times. I have lived in 9 different cities, 13 if you include outlying suburban cities, and 6 states and now 2 countries (typing from Grenada). The next four/+ years will bring more moving.

My wife lived in the same house almost her who life. It wasn't until grad school that she moved out of her home state.

Home is definitely where the love is. In our modern world of communication our personal ability to connect around the world and acquire information has become a ever expanding sphere but at the same time it has made the world much "smaller." I do at times wish my family could live closer to eachother... my wife's as well. This seems unlikely at this point. But, I can talk to my family over the internet via video phone. So, even though I am further away from my family as I have have ever been and I am neighbors with Chavez , I can actually see my family more often than I have in the past decade. That is pretty cool.

Things will only get more interesting for my kids as they grow up. Love is the key where ever you are. If you don't have that.... well, you'd better get your a$$ home. :)

Edited by lindyhopper
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:offtopic:

It's worked out very well, but if I'd told myself it was "too late" it wouldn't have happened. We've had 16 years in our home - if I'd talked myself out of it because it was "too late" - hey, 16 years is a long time. I'd still be kicking myself thinking I'd wished I'd done this or that.

It's never too late. :) The right time is always now.

A bit "off topic" this, but a couple of months ago there was an article in the NZ newspaper and on the UK news about some man who decided to emigrate to New Zealand "before he got too old." He uprooted and took his wife with him to start their new life.

What's amazing about that? He's 92 and his wife is 86.

Good for them!!!!!

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In answer to the thread question- YES!

I graduated from college in 1982 and went that year. I prayed for a “major city with a beach” as my happiest childhood memories are of family vacations in Martha’s Vineyard and I had been land-locked in Indiana and Ohio for 15 years. I got sent to Long Island.

After the year ended I stayed (having no other place to go as my father moved to Arizona, my sister to Cleveland and my mother was in Indiana) and 26 years later I am still here.

I only have a few things that keep me here- mainly comfort and familiarity. My husband has been gone for 2 ½ year, my current job of 2 years is pretty uninspiring (but in today’s economy a job is a job right?); I have 2 very good girlfriends that I see too infrequently and I am dating a nice man who I will never live with or marry because of our many differences.

I sometimes wonder if I should start over somewhere else- somewhere with a lower coast of living. I also have wondered what my life would be like- if I hadn't gone wow.

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With the exception of my wow year, twi had no influence as to what city I lived in.

I was a wow in Bossier City, LA (hated it). After my wow year I joined the Army and they decided where I was going to live for the next 6 years. After I left active duty (I was still in the Army Reserves and later retired from the Reserves, but thats a different story). I decided to move to Leominster, MA (I lived with some some great people). From there I moved here to Southern AZ with my job.

I still go home to Salt Lake City, UT to visit my family. I am very fortunate that I am still close with my family.

There is never going someplace and returning to exactly what you left. People and things are always changing and evolving.

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:offtopic:

HEY ZSHOT!

HOW YA BEEN! :)

okay back to the topic:

With the exception of my wow year, twi had no influence as to what city I lived in.

this is true for me as well...

GOOD TO SEE YOU ZSHOT!

peace,

jen-o

Edited by jen-o
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Did TWI influence where I settled when I left it?

Nope. But then again, yes it did.

I stayed in New Knoxville for many, many years after I left TWI staff. The influence was that I owned a home there, had started a family there. When I left I went home.

There was no " TWI influence" that kept me in NK. I LIKED LIVING THERE.

I had no problems going home, as in to my home town mostly because I had never cut my ties W/ home & family. In fact, I think it my my connection w/"home" that colored my TWI experience. I got involved w/ TWI @ age 15 & had to answer to MOM as to my whereabouts, etc. My Mom kept me grounded in sanity.

STILL. I bought into the TWI myth much more than I thought I did.

I thank God for my Mom & family ties. It saved me MUCH grief during my TWI years. Conversely it CAUSED me much grief during my time in TWI. Seeing as I never swallowed the kool-aid I drank, I stood out - - looking back I can see that as a cause for why I never got promotions I was passed over for, things like that. I had a lot of autonomy in my position as I often worked directly with and for VP. I would invoke "the name of VP" or "VP said we should do it this way..." to end many arguments, etc.

In fact, it was Don W, himself who ordered John Lynn NOT to throw me out of the WC, when JAL had told me, "the decision had already been made..."

My point is... although at the time I was in, and for a good while after being out, I THOUGHT TWI had much less influence on me than was the actual reality. When one drinks the kool-aid, some of it gets swallowed, no matter how violently he spits it out or fights against the influence.

My ties to home made my transition back into the real world a much easier journey. The same ties (I visited home & family at least once per year, called sisters & brother, who were never TWI folllowers monthly) kept me from changing my life so radically that I was able to keep my children "away from the influence."

I was thinking clearly enough when I was in to keep my profession and ties intact. When I left, I decided to stay where I was because NK it a great small town to live & raise a family in. I could see that they have a great school that is head & shoulders above many public schools anywhere in the country. My daughter is a proud grad of NK High & they are equally proud of her.

I'm OK now. And would advise anyone who was ever "in" to think again, and constantly check their thinking against "societal norms" to be sure that we are in fact "OUT" from under the influence.

Later gang.

Edited by HCW
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Can I "go home".. no. I can visit if I want, but actually go home? No.

It's not as bad as it may sound..

but I'm not *really* home.. but I can't really go home either..

does that make any sense?

Makes a LOT of sense to me too. I've thought a LOT about the concept of living somewhere for a long time but not being "home."

I live in Dayton, Oh now and the locals are clueless as to how welcome they DON'T make us transplants. They're not malicious of purposeful about it like some small town folk can be ("yer not frum a-round heere are ya...?). Nonetheless, even though I have made lots of friends, its different. Its not home for me and it may never be....

Again, not such a bad thing, but it does exist.

I've thought things from the extremes, like "home is where your heart is...." or the aforementioned "Papa was a Rollin' Stone.... wherever he laid his hat was his home" concept.

An interesting thing to me on this topic is how New Knoxville feels as much like "home" when I visit there as my "home" does when I go home. I'm guessing that it is the memories that I have from the time that I lived there. The things that I did that made the the memories are the things that makes a place where one lives "home."

I guess.

I bought my first home, got married, cut the grass on Saturday mornings, watched my first born be born, went to countless parent-teacher conferences, bought and used season tickets to NKHS basketball games, did the seasonal festival things, raked the leaves from our 30 trees, raised the kids who jumped in the leaves.... All that stuff, the good - the bad & the ugly maybe that's what it is that makes a place home? I'm thinking the fact that I had a vested interest in what I was doing - - the fact that I actually liked the place and felt welcomed by the place & the people - - maybe that's why it feels like home to me?

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