Friday, July 23, 2010

Home

I grew up in Florida.  I had no family there other than my mother and father, but it has always been "home" in my mind.  Now that my father is no longer alive, and my mother lives in a city in VA where I have never lived, I wonder where home is sometimes.  Is it Smalltown, VA?  I've made MY home here, that's for sure. 

When friends leave for the holidays, or just a trip "home", I'm always a bit envious.  Where is that place for me?

My father's family is from Bamberg, SC.  Bamberg is about 1.5 hours from Edisto Island, and an hour from Charleston.  Bamberg is the type of town where everyone has one of three last names.  I have one of those last names, my father's mother had another one, and her mother had another one.  So, in effect, I've got all bases covered in Bamberg :)  Is this my home? Bamberg is surely where it all began. 

This is the place where my father's family made their home before the American Revolution.  This is the place where my father's family fought to save their homestead during "the war"......otherwise known as 'the late unpleasantness'. 














This is where Francis Marion (also known as 'the Swamp Fox' ) avoided British capture during the American Revolution.  I am a descendent of the Swamp Fox.  My father was named after him.

(British cavalryman Banastre Tarleton chased Marion for 26 miles & 7 hours & could not catch him. He supposedly said, “Come, my boys! Let us go back and we will find the Gamecock. As for this damned old fox, the devil himself could not catch him!” Thus the nickname “Swamp Fox” because Marion hid in the swamps in the Low Country of South Carolina to avoid British capture.)


(Grave of General Francis Marion.  Belle Isle, SC is the burial place of the Lowcountry's famous "Swamp Fox" general who outwitted the British during the American Revolution.)

Bamberg and Orangeburg are are full of family.  But they are family I haven't seen in years.  People who would hardly recognize me now.  They would only remember the little girl in pigtales who came to see where she came from, long ago.

The family members who I reconnected with at my father's funeral all seem to live in Edisto these days.  Perhaps this should be "home" for me?  I adore Edisto Island.  I would willingly move there if the opportunity presented itself :)  

 










I don't know why today has me a bit nostalgic for "home", but I'm thinking that taking a Holiday to re-visit my roots may be in order in the next month or so.  




"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
-John Howard Payne

"The ache for home lives in all of us,
the safe place where we can go as we are
and not be questioned."
-Maya Angelou

"Home is the place where,
when you have to go there,
they have to take you in."
-Robert Frost

Happy Weekend!

T

7 comments:

Lauren said...

Crazy, because I was JUST thinking the same thing last night on my drive home. I was born in one town, then moved to another, then my parents got divorced, moved to another, went to the same high school for 5 years (8-12), then graduated and have pretty much lived all over Orange County since then. I never know what my "hometown" is, and want to move somewhere and make my roots somewhere, where I will stay and have MY kids come "home" someday.

I thought so much about it, I was going to write a blog post. Now I will for sure!

Emily Kathleen said...

Beautiful pictures. One of the things I love the most about the South (and I guess other places have this too but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same)is how you can actually feel (not just see) the history of a town. (Does that sound weird?)

I grew up in Florida too, but it never felt like home to me. My mother's family is from Virginia and every time we left Virginia to return to Florida I felt homesick. Hubs and I live in VA! I think 'home' is wherever your heart feels the most comfortable. (I know that sounds oddly sappy, but I think it's true!)

Charleston Girl said...

Definitely come visit! I'll take you out for drinks in Charleston! :)

P.S. I gave you an award on my blog today!

Ann said...

Either option looks like a lovely place to call home.
I was thinking the other day, even though I've lived where I am right now for over 20 years and it's my home, I miss being able to go back to the home I grew up in.

VA Gal said...

What beautiful pictures! Though my roots are pretty much 100% Virginia, I love South Carolina.

I kind of struggle with the "Where is home?" feeling, too. I'm still in VA, but up near DC and while I like it, it feels so different from the rest of the state.

MCW said...

That is very cool that you know so much about your father's history...I find it so interesting.

Tiffany and the Munchkins said...

You have family roots very near to me! :) I find more and more these days that a lot of people have some sort of ties to SC. If you do make a trip to Edisto, let me know! That's only a hop, skip, and jump away from me.