The Hazard Chronicles

I was roughly the same age as Adalie and Jackson when my family moved to Rexburg. When I think about growing up, virtually all of my "childhood" memories come from our house in Merced (California), with Rexburg being reserved for a few awkward, yet very formative teenage years through high school. I left home right after turning 19 years old, which is when, up until very recently, I felt like I said goodbye to this place.

Well, my parents have recently sold that house. They are moving to a different town and onto a different stage of life. It's probably a good thing for them. This last weekend, the majority of my siblings and I got together one last time as a kind of farewell. For some of us, it will probably be the last time we ever really go to Rexburg.

We had a good weekend that was a family reunion of sorts, and we visited some of the old places of our youth. It wasn't until about an hour before we left that it really hit home to me how much I was actually going to miss it all. And by "it all" I'm not really talking about the physical place, per se. But it is undeniable that there is still a "feeling" there for me. A feeling of belonging. Of comfort. Protection. I guess, in a certain way, of "home." 

Like, when I visit my parents from now on, it will very much feel like going to "my parent's house" instead of "my" old house. It will never again have that sense of "going home." That home is gone now. The new place will be foreign. I mean, we might as well stay in a hotel with them. I won't know if a beloved family pet was ever in the backyard chasing thunderstorms. Or if kids ever jumped down the stairs onto pillows. How teenagers built makeshift gyms or clubhouses or stereo systems, or where all the best hiding places are during night games. And though these things are irrelevant to my life now, just being in a place where, on a subconscious level, I "felt" this history all around me was somehow very comforting, familiar, and reassuring. These thoughts shook me more than I thought they would, and I can't deny that I feel like a part of me is being lost here. It makes me a little bit sad.

On a more practical level, it also makes me kind of sad that we are not likely to see my parents as much as we used to. I feel like I had very involved grandparents growing up, and I want that for my kids. The vast majority of my own childhood memories includes at least one of them being present. And though it isn't exactly close, Rexburg was at least within striking distance of a single weekend for us. It was also a convenient stop on the way to other places, meaning that we had many impromptu visits as we traveled to and from other destinations. The new town, however, is both further away and more remote from our family. We'll make an effort, of course, but especially as our teenage kids get busy with jobs and friends and extracurriculars, it is hard for me not to see our family losing something in this move in terms of familial relationships.

Anyway, I'm not trying to sound all somber- We really did have a great weekend and it was nice seeing some extended family. Here are some photos. Have a good week!

*****

This is on top of "R Mountain." It's a hill, with on R on it for "R"exburg. This is one of many small day hikes that we used to do when I lived there. As you look out from the top you get a pretty good view of the surrounding area.

Ev, Addy, and I took a long way down and did some scrambling along the way. It was kind of a fun run/hike.

This is at a park along the Snake river. I would often take my dog on walks to this place. It was always amazing to me how I could throw a tennis ball as far as I wanted into the dense undergrowth and how she would always find it. This was also a common destination for me to go by myself as I was learning to drive. It was a nice place to end up, and a secluded place to practice starting and shifting gears as I drove around the nearly-always-vacant campsites. (It was also fun to peel out or spin the car on the gravel roads)

I wasn't planning to visit Beaver Dick Park during this trip, but I had pointed the area out to Evelyn on previous drives so she knew about it. On Saturday night she told me she was planning on waking up early and driving out there the next morning, and she asked if I wanted to come. I thought that was kind of neat, and quickly jumped onboard. 

The nature ponds. I spent a lot of summer days at this place, swimming with friends, jumping off rocks and goofing around in the water. We would often bring kayaks and slide down the steep banks into the water, or practice our "combat rolls." All this play actually turned me into a pretty proficient whitewater kayaker. We would almost always stop on the way home at Dairy Queen for ice cream.

The skate park. I didn't skateboard a lot growing up- that is a more recent thing. I did spend a fair amount of time on rollerblades though. In California we would play roller hockey in the cul-de-sac by our house, or build mini "skateparks" out of random pieces of wood and pipe. In Rexburg I would take my dog for runs- throwing a ball down a hill and then holding onto the leash for dear life as she pulled me on skates to chase it. 

Addy soon learned that bike jumps don't work as well on skateboards.

This is the big field at the elementary school where my mom taught and where many of my siblings attended. We had to play a family wiffle ball game there.

Well, this brings back memories. When we moved to Rexburg I was a teenager, and kind of a quiet one at that. It wasn't easy for me to make new friends, but I found a lot of encouragement and acceptance in a budding local rock climbing scene, consisting mostly of college students. What you are looking at in this picture is my very first training apparatus- a makeshift hang-board that I put in the storage room. The holes in the ceiling behind the blue block are from small screws that held a piece of foam from an old camping mat. The foam was so I didn't hurt my head so much when I bumped it doing pullups. Surprisingly, it still held my weight and I did a few one-arms for old times' sake (I didn't trust it enough for front levers though). I also went outside and did the traverse one more time across the brick wall from the my old window to the other bedroom window. I used to do that to train finger strength.

If you're interested, this is a much better photo at high res if you click on it

Goodbye old house