We closed on a house and started moving today. I will be posting pictures of the place I am leaving. Even though they are only ten minutes away, most of these are not going to be on any line I will be traveling, and I will only see them if I make a specific effort. This picture is a good reminder of the young couple with three young boys next door. Very well-behaved, always wanting to help Daddy, who does a lot of cutting wood and other physical labor. I will miss them.
10 comments:
Moving isn't easy. The packing alone is hard ("Do we need that?" "This was supposed to go in the box we already sealed!"), but as you note, friends are going to drift out of your orbit now.
I have read that moving is as traumatic as the death of a close family member. Our last move certainly was. I had hoped never to move again, but who knows?
My next move will be to a lot in the New Salem Cemetery. We left Houston to live in the barn whilst the house was built then moved into what will be our last alive home. Don't know what comes after the next move - guess I'll find out - or nah!
I moved in December to a new house, having moved out of the old house of 30 years and spent 3.5 years in an apartment during the construction of the new. Still have boxes to open and sort thru. It's not as traumatic as a death in the family, which I've had.
We left our 4Bdrm home of 20 years and moved into a 760SF cottage in our daughter's backyard. Been here a year, and we love it. Leaving neighbors was hard.
Best wishes on your move.
I think the trauma of moving is a product of an individual's conditioning.
I recall reading a website once where an individual was describing his family's croft in Scotland. They had obtained title in the 1800's following some act of Parliament, but they had lived there for centuries before that, as serfs under one feudal lord or another. He lived in a house that had been built in the 1800s, and the "old house" that the family had lived in before that was still on the property, though somewhat derelict. It had been built in the 13th century. Prior to this man, his fore-bearers had been born in those houses (or their precursors).
My point here is that, for this man, moving away would be very traumatic. Likely more traumatic than a death in the family.
My experience on the other hand, is quite different. My father changed jobs several times between when I was too young to remember anything and when I was about twelve. We moved for each job change, and I spent my teenage years with a vague subconscious sense that we'd been in that house too long and would probably move soon.
My own career has involved even more job changes and moves than my father's. If I told the family today that we were going to move again, they wouldn't bat an eye. Beyond one or two close friends that they'd be sorry to leave behind, there would be no trauma at all. Moving is almost a routine for us.
I did a count, and have lived in 16 places. However, that looks like a lot more movement than it actually is. Seven of those were in Manchester and this will be our third in Goffstown, an immediate suburb of Manchester. Goffstown alone totals 42 years. Manchester is my entire school time K-12 and the few years after college. I barely remember the four places age 1-5. Williamsburg Va and Sudbury MA overlapped 1971-75 when my parents moved and I went there Christmas and summers. My wife has essentially lived in Scituate and Goffstown only. We stayed at churches for long years each, and worked at jobs long years each. We are not movable people, it seems.
I have known people who stayed in one place as adults precisely because they moved too frequently as children, and adults who have moved about the country because they grew tired of the towns of their youth.
Mmm. I wonder if there is something genetic about wanting to move versus wanting to stay put.
There's a tension between the wanting to stay and the need to move -- defining need with wide parameters.
Is it odd that I can more easily count the cars I've owned than I can count the number of places I've lived?
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