The Cumberland Plateau

Julie, our anxious cat ‘George,’ and I have arrived at our new home on ‘The Cumberland Plateau’ in Tennessee…have a taste:  

 

 

 

Thomas Wolfe wrote many years ago a novel, “You Can’t Go Home Again.” So long ago my birth, my childhood, and my teen years opened the biography book of my living. Guess I needed to test Wolfe’s thesis — with all those young years that basically built me, gave me emotional pain, gave me joy, could some pieces have been left behind to help me discover more of the person I became, the person who loved, who despaired, who meant to have been so much more for the world?

Two days here a few lines have come to me (fitting, perhaps, for a song) – you miss my tender tenor voice and the melody but here are a few words: “Saw mills and railroad tracks fill my memory / Creosote smells and Mama’s home cooking / Part of my Tennessee // Cows grazing in the meadow / Papa plowing up the ground / Mama in the kitchen churning her butter…” (well, you get the idea!) These first two days back give me a sense of well being, a sense that maybe the move was the right choice, a sense that maybe that part of my destiny was already written.

Julie and I sat on the deck with cocktails last night, looked across the canyon to another ridge of green trees, sipped and savored some good moments. ‘George,’ too, had a rough trip and is still in a moping mood, carefully, slowly checking things out — he’s just glad to be out of the car (and gets nervous when he sees Julie pulling clothes from the suitcases)… He’s usually a consistent meow-yapper but he hasn’t muttered much these past two days.

Well, the bottom line is that we safely drove some 2,000 miles in 3 and 1/2 days, arrived at our new home, all furnished and ready for use. That’s the way we buy houses. At this point we feel good about the move. We love the house. We love the views. AND, we know the first storm has not visited us yet!

Those pieces I mentioned earlier? The song is a start, but I’m not fooling myself! What I am is what I get! We will stay put for awhile, maybe a long while, until that wanderlust itch hits again.

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You can visit my main website/blog: http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com

You can preview all my books at the Independent Authors Network (IAN) site: http://goo.gl/fuxUA

You can get a short bio sketch of me at: http://www.about.me/brchitwood