Day 207, Redux: Photo Blog #26

The assignment back on Day 7 was "Your most treasured item." Faithful Readers will recall that I decided 'item' was definitely 'thing,' not 'person,' so I didn't use a photo of my kids (that came later). I used a photo of my wedding ring.

Fair enough.

Today's photo is "A picture of something that means a lot to you." You see what I meant about that overlap business. Again.

Rather than use the same wedding-ring picture, I've slightly changed today's, to "A picture of some PLACE that means a lot to you."

And that is easy. There's a tiny village in upstate New York, halfway between Syracuse and Watertown, where one branch of my family has lived since at least 1840.

My parents were living there when I was born, and it was the place where we spent every Fourth of July until... well, I guess until I was long out of high school, maybe even until my kids came along.

Sometimes we were able to get back* for Thanksgivings, Christmases, Easters, and even the occasional Halloween or Mother's Day. And of course there was the usual assortment of family celebrations, and sorrows - virtually all of my ancestors, as well as my brother, are buried there.

*We were living in Maryland, nearly 400 miles south, and it was an all-day car trip just to get there, although I-81 has shaved a bit of time from that now.

This photo was taken around 1911, just about the time my grandmother was born:



Quite a lot of people had a copy - it's from an old postcard; my grandmother had one, which is where I'd first seen it. There was a time I could tell you the names of just about everyone who lived along the street in the picture, and probably the names of most people in the village.

If I can be said to have roots, that's the place. It goes beyond 'means a lot.' I guess it's Home.

Goodnight, Sparklers, wherever you are!