You and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead
Two of us wearing raincoats
Standing solo
In the sun
You and me chasing paper
Getting nowhere
On our way back home
We’re on our way home
We’re on our way home
We’re going home
—Paul Mccartney, John Lennon
In a way, we are going home. After college in Iowa, I moved to Holland, Michigan on a financial management program. The next year, my wife-to-be arrived. Holland was a small sleepy town with not much going on for recent college graduates. But we survived. Explored the beaches of western Michigan. Trips to Chicago, a five hour drive to Toronto.
Now, Holland has changed. My old manufacturing plant is a Menards (big box home improvement store). Lots and lots of retail and restaurants everywhere.
And we have changed too. We are choosing a smaller beach community nearby. Much of what we only tolerated in our 20’s, we embrace now. Spend a day on the beach of Lake Michigan… how can you not fall in love? In the winter, bring on the lake effect snow. We will have nowhere we have to go. Amazon delivers on Sunday! My time to write the novels no one will read.
Here we are all those many years later. Improbably having returned to Iowa for my final assignment, we are heading to Michigan again.
We’re on our way home