Keeping it close

There are certain things you don't realize aren't the norm for everyone until you are much older.

For instance, it wasn't until I was in high school going into college, that I realized (as in, it really dawned on me) that not everyone has family close by.

For me it was never a question.  All of my Mama's brother and sisters lived on the same road (the same road I currently live off of, mind you), until Aunt Connie got high and mighty and married a man named Buzzy who lived a whopping 30 minutes away in Buzzard's Corner (yes, that is really what it is called)!

It was a big deal.

And I'm not being facetious there.

I was somewhere around 11 when all that went down.  Connie wasn't the first of Grandma's children to move out of the community, other aunts and uncles had lived in New Bern for short stints as well, but Aunt Connie was the first to settle down away from home.
She always was a trailblazer, to which I attribute it starting when she bought that motorcycle…

Anywho, when my husband, who at the time was merely my older brother's long-haired, hippie friend, first came to visit "home", he was shocked that everyone lived on the same road. We were shocked that he was so shocked.
Even though he comes from a large family with lots of aunts and uncles, they all lived a little more dispersed throughout the Minneapolis area.

Not here.  We like things nice and close. :)

It's still like that today. 

When The Hubs and I moved back to this area four years ago from Wilmington, NC, we first started looking for houses in the surrounding little towns, but then realized, what was the use?

We moved back to be closer to family. (And close was what we got in that situation--living with my parents for 2 years before moving in our own home again…but I'll save that for a later post…)

When we finally did move into our new home, it was (and is) within spitting range (okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration) to not only my parents, but two of my uncles homes too.

Just yesterday, Sugar and I took a walk through the woods to Grandma and Pop's. 

Here she is now (with our fat cat in the forefront).

It's not a long walk, maybe half a mile, but not quite.

It's through the same woods I spent countless hours as a child building forts, playing hide and seek (deer and dog if you're from this area) and stealing smokes (um, yeah, about that, Mom…).

I love living here. 

In the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere. 

But close enough to what matters.