Yesterday, Mom and I drove to Le Mars, my hometown, to visit relatives. So much has changed since I graduated from college in 1978. The old post office is now the Community Theater’s headquarters. The old Carnegie library, where I met Lois Lenski, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Cherry Ames, is now the Fine Arts Center. Westmar College is gone, Wells Blue Bunny is a behemoth, but KLEM is still on the air and the Daily Sentinel is still in business.
Beverly Van Buskirk, the lifestyles editor at the Sentinel, interviewed me about my book. We chuckled through the entire interview because we were high school and college classmates, never dreaming we’d both be writers one day. And in a few minutes, we’re going to my aunt’s house, where she and my uncle have lived for nearly 50 years, for coffee with some old neighbors.
The house will be familiar, but visiting with the neighbors as adult to adult will be a bit strange for me. One woman is the mother of a childhood friend of mine. Another is the mother of two kids I used to babysit. Maybe they’ve moved on, but I’m still stuck in those old relationships, and am not sure how to act.
So many things in my hometown have changed. Maybe today, I’ll be the one who changes. Maybe today, I’ll grow up.
