Remnants from the past...

Dear Diary,

After Mary and I planted the cemetery we drove through my old home town.  So much has changed but so much was still there.  The town looked thriving and well cared for which was heartening to see. 

We went to the street where I grew up, about 7 miles from town.  Funny, I just realize that where I live in Maine is also 7 miles from town!  The Fergulian apple orchard is still at the corner of my street, run now by the third generation but the old country road I lived on is full of new houses.  We had quite a time finding the place where my house once stood.  It burned down years ago.  Finally I saw the two old pine trees that stood before it and where I would wait for the school bus every morning. Strangely, the people there still have the mailbox in the same place as ours.

We drove a little ways down the road to where the old wooden bridge that crossed the railroad tracks stood, long gone now.  The space below was filled in.  We searched on either side to see if there was any remnants of the tracks and there was, on one side. (extra)  It looks like it is used for an ATV track now.  They say you can never go home and that is true for the place you return to is not the place you left because you are not the same.  In this case, very little of my old world remained but Mary and I shared lots of memories of it and so in a very real sense it is still very much alive.