Moving Day

We helped Mary move over the past weekend. It caused me to reflect on all of the moves I've been involved with in my lifetime. I've moved 14 times in my life so far and expect at least a couple more. Moving day evokes a lot of different emotions. Each time can be exciting, frightening, sad, happy, fun, maddening, all wrapped into one. My first big move was when our family moved from Pittsburgh to Fairfax, VA when I was in the 6th grade. I hated my parents for it at the time but really liked living in Virginia for the 3 and half years that we were there. I didn't want to leave when we went back to Pittsburgh when I was in the 9th grade. The next big move for me was leaving Pittsburgh (again) to go to Penn State. I oculdn't wait to leave Pittsburgh that time, but when I got to Penn State I was scared to death. That didn't last long and I met people that will forever be a part of my life there most notibly Terry. Leaving Penn State was also a biggy because Terry was still there and I went to, you guessed it, Pittsburgh. We got married and Terry moved to Pittsburgh with me. Didn't stay too long this time, it was off to Columbus, Ohio to start a new life and a family. Eventually my sister came there to start her family and even later my brother and his new family. I think the hardest move for me personally was leaving Columbus. My kids grew up with my sister's kids- we lived a couple of blocks from each other. From there we went to NJ. Terry, Matt, and Mark hated me for it but by the time we left there they didn't want to go. We settled here in Clemmons for a long time now. Moving took on a whole new meaning. I still remember the day that we took Matt to Elon. That picture of him, Mark, and me is one of my favorites. He was so anxious to be free. I was so glad (and sad) for him to be free. We helped him move a few times during his college life-those experiences were not some of my fondest memories. The kid didn't like to pack things into boxes you just moved them from one place to a vehicle to another place! Moving Mark to App State was easy. Just had to fill the back of his and my Jeep with mostly newly aquired loot and unload at the dorm. I say it was easy but that was another very hard move for me - to have Mark leave meant no more special time with him, me, and Terry - wrestling on the couch, watching movies - good happy fun. One of my most memorable moves was when I helped Mark and his friend John move Mark's stuff out of a house up in Boone into the house that Matt bought up in Boone. Mark had an awful lot of stuff by then and it was kind of cold and rainy but I still remember the fun I had driving up and back in the truck with them - they were middle and high school friends. Luckily I was spared the final move from college for both Matt and Mark. I know they didnt want me to see all of the stuff they had accumulated and were trashing - especially Mark who rented an industrial dumpster to clean out the house that Matt owned in Boone when he was done with school. Matt asked me to help him move a sectional sofa into his 3rd floor walk up in Greensboro. We went to Highpoint to get it. I knew it was going to be interesting when we pulled up to the house where it was being stored in the carport. It seemed to be ok but had a hell of a lot of pet hair on in. No matter. So I haven't been involved in too much moving except to help unload what Mark did bring back from college to his new house in Winston. That was pretty easy as far as moves go.