Home is more than a house, more than a family; it is a place where you
belong. Michigan is my home. It is my history and my future.
This autumn my husband and I took our twenty-month old daughter to an apple
farm and cider mill. We ate fresh donuts and drank apple cider and she had
her first pony ride. She was a little apprehensive at first and then the
apple orchard filled with her laughter. Next week we will carve pumpkins
and rake together the red and golden leaves in our yard, so she can jump
into them over and over until they spread all over the yard again.
This is our future. It is not west of here or south of here-it is here and
there is a peaceful comfort of belonging that surrounds that thought for me.
My father died here, and my mother and all my siblings live within an
hour’s drive from me-none of us straying far from our small hometown. We
spend Thanksgiving together every year, and we give thanks for our homes
and our families. As a child, I remember my Dad never missed a Lion’s game
on Thanksgiving. Sometimes this wreaked a little havoc with our holiday
dinner, even to the point of putting a television in the dining room one
year. Our first Thanksgiving without him we turned on the Lion’s game-not
the same, but somehow he was still with us.
I have winter memories of being wrapped in a snowsuit, with hats and
gloves, shoveling our driveway from winter snowstorms. One year we had to
shovel out the entire road, all our neighbors joining together and drinking
hot cocoa and coffee afterwards. What must have been an ordeal at that
time, has now become a fond memory.
I love walking in the spring, the warm breezes caressing my face, blowing
away the cold and ice, the muddy roads and green sprigs on the trees, the
flowers popping out, seemingly overnight. I have taken these spring walks
every year for over four decades.
As a kid my favorite time of year was the warm summers, when it seemed the
days never ended. School was out, and I remember how excited I was the
first night my mom let me stay outside after the sun had set. I felt so
grown up, although I was only eight years old.
It is true there are places where it is warm all year, and in the dead of
winter when I’m sure it has ‘never been this cold before,’ I sometimes envy
that warmth; but, to give up my little girl jumping in the leaves and
building snowmen-not a chance.
Michigan is my home. It is my husband’s home, and now it is my daughter’s
home and I hope it always will be.
5 Comments
Roxanne:
Your memories, as you described them, became palatable to me–someone who grew up in a slightly different climate—and I enjoyed them immensely. Thanks for the journey.
Carolyn
Roxanne,
The writer in you longs for more of your attention. This was a wonderful piece.
Being a Michigander, I fully understand your
journey! Great job!!!!!
Valerie Eaglin
Thank you for what you are doing to seek new ideas to improve the lives of all of us here in Michigan.
Please send me your e-mail address,and your office address so that I can send you some of my thoughts on how to rebuild a great state.
Also, I want to send you a copy of my book
“New Ideas for the Twenty First Century” by James Raintree (my pen name). This book was written to re-build a great nation. (And is in itself a think-tank generator, as it invites and encourages every person who reads the book to improve on the new ideas presented, or to come up with better ideas. We need all the good ideas we can get, to bring peace and prosperity to every American, and to each of our neighbors here and throughout the world.
It’s possible, and probable, that it is easier to rebuild a great nation, than to rebuild a great state. Why? Because none of our states has a money machine (the right to print money). Only the U.S. Treasury has the right to print money. However, it’s time has come, when a state needs money to help re-build its economy and provide jobs for its people, that the U.S. Treasury provide the funds needed to pay for the government work projects provided for full employment, until full employment can be provided by the private sector.
In 1933, President FDR, in his first 100 days in office, went off the Gold Standard, printed billions of dollars to fund the 1,410,000 work projects that his team of brainstorms came up with, to put millions of Americans to work, that led the way to our recovery from the great depression, and the re-building of our great nation. We are still off the Gold Standard, thank god and FDR, who gave us and the world the blueprint for recovery. We need to brainstorm and come up with the necessary work projects, and then send the bill for the work projects to the U. S. Treasury and demand that they pay that bill. It is the federal government that permitted our jobs to be shipped to China, Indea, Mexico, etc.
Now, for the future, and to eliminate the need for government work projects, except on a limited bais as a safe harbor, we need to eliminate recessions forever on this planet, as outlined on pages 10 thru 18 of Chapter One of my book. It’s called “Economic Modeling,” and it’s user friendly. It’s the first major change in the history of economics, except for the “exchange facilitator” we call “money.”
Please let me hear from you. My e-mail address is provided above my comment.
Dick Trent
Rachel,
Your thoughts are an eloquent defense for those of us who are sometimes ask the question: ‘why do you stay in Michigan?’ It’s hard to answer, because for some of us, it seems so obvious.
Oh nuts.
Roxanne, I’m sorry about the name mix up.