"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Your Home Town

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

The prompt for the week is:    

Your Home Town

The Brief:
We all have one, perhaps it is where we were born, perhaps it where we lived for that special time in our lives, or perhaps it is where we now live.

• Wherever it is, why not tell us about it.
• Explain where it is, don't forget we are across the world!
• What is it that makes your "place" special?
• Do you feel a nice comfy emotional connection?

This is a tricky topic for me as I've lived in many towns growing up. I guess the best way to describe my "home town" would be to say the Hudson Valley in New York in the United States as this place. This is because my mother and I moved every few years from place to place all around in that area. On the map below, this would be the region denoted by the number 8.

Taken from Wikipedia

As a timeline, I have lived all around this region:
1972-1976 - Lived in Newburgh, New York
 

From Wikipedia

Newburgh was where my family lived when I was born. They owned a house not far from Stewart Airport (was Stewart Air Force base) due to my father being US Navy (and later retired from). This way my mother could still get to a military base for the PX or grocery store, the doctor's and some of the other things people had access to back then. However, by the time I left home, the PX was no longer as they demolished it to make it a car park for the upcoming airport, the doctor had been taken and shifted to West Point due to budget and many of the other extras were no longer given.

1976-1986 - Various addresses around Walden, New York

From Wikipedia

Walden is where my eldest sister lived when my mother left my father. Its a small little town where, if you live in town, everything is walkable. Its a quaint little town, but I have to admit over the last 20 years its changed and not for the better. There are many people living on government payments in sections and some of the houses have not been kept up in certain sections. This is actually sad because this used to be a great little town where everyone knew everyone else.

1987-1989 - Lyon Mountain New York (this would be region 5 on the map above)

From Wikipedia

Once my oldest sister moved from Walden, she moved up to Lyon Mountain which is towards the Canadian border with her daughters. We did move up near her, but my mother could not find a good and stable paying job, so we had to move back around the area we lived in previously. 

1989-1997 - Maybrook, New York

From Wikipedia

Maybrook NY was where we lived when I finished high school and went to college. We did moved a few times within the town. Again this is another tiny town only about 15 minutes from Walden New York. It was close enough to the town but not in it.

Special & Emotional connection

I think these areas were the special places because I spent my growing up years here. For the most part, it was stable as the areas we moved around to kept me in the same school district and this meant I had the same friends over the years.

Even now, we go back to the US to visit and we go to these areas so I can catch up with friends in the area. I don't believe there are many people who can say they've had the same friends for over 35 years!

My friends from school at our last reunion

  Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.