Phyllis Buell
September Journey
I haven’t lived in a lot of places in my lifetime.
Thinking back on my life, I realize I haven’t moved very far away from my childhood home.
More than seventeen years I lived two miles west and ¾ of a mile south of the Village of Elmwood.
We lived the first two years of our marriage just seven miles away on a farm one mile south and one mile west of Alvo.
Then –came a big move for the next thirteen years. We moved to a farm two miles south and one long driveway west of Syracuse. Indeed, those years were wonderful. All three of our children Ken, Mark and Carolyn were born in the “old” hospital in ‘52, ‘55 and ‘59.
Back to Murdock to Merle’s homeplace in ‘64. Four and ¼ miles north of Elmwood and second house around the curve coming from Murdock.
We were there almost a half century before we moved to Gramercy Hill, due to Merle’s health – just a few blocks from the hospital where I was born.
The “Lincoln years,” during the time I was learning to be alone after Merle’s death held some pleasant times for me. I made new friends as a docent at the Sunken Gardens and my writing group, Word Weavers. I still keep in touch with several of the women I enjoyed meeting in my Bible Study.
After eight and a half years there, I was able to return to Elmwood and live just 2 and ¾ miles from my birthplace.
My children and grandchildren have traveled this old world from continent to continent. Good thing that travel wasn’t my prime priority in life. Dairy farmers can’t, don’t, or won’t go far from home for very long.
Nothing can be put “on hold” on a dairy farm. Cows need to be fed and milked twice a day – no matter what the weather or other work may demand. The feed has to be there waiting, and the poop scooped.
It was hard enough to find someone to do that 40 years ago. Today, it would be almost impossible and totally un-affordable for a “mom and pop” dairy.
About two years after we had moved to Murdock, another one of our “sons” visited. Bob Andrews from Syracuse had been with us in various capacities for years at Syracuse. He helped Merle plant the cedar windbreak before we moved back to Merle’s homeplace and visited us often.
Bob decided we needed a vacation. He picked a date and said he would be here to do our chores and that was that. We went to the Black Hills and visited relatives in the Sandhills. Bob handled everything just fine.
Carolyn found a trip to Hawaii and we went there with some new friends for our 25th wedding anniversary. Ken and Mark managed to keep everything going during the coldest weather in history. She also insisted upon the trip to Switzerland and other European countries.
Those few trips were great, but for we two homebodies, the greatest sight we saw was home!
Home – wherever it may be – as I once heard it described is “where I hang my heart.”
