You know, I have to tell you that living in Hutchinson is actually an "ok" thing. There have been a wealth of opportunities here for me and I would be very remiss if I didn't acknowledge some of them. From my home here on 14th Street, I am just 5-10 minutes away from lots of cool places to visit and things to do. The Kansas Cosmosphere and Discovery Center is easily within walking distance. If you are a space buff then you really should check this out if you haven't already done so. It was in the Cosmosphere's IMAX theatre that I saw the film "Speed" more times than I can remember to count. Thinking that there's a chance that my idea for the bucket list item "to ride on a motorcycle very fast and live to tell about it" was conceived right there at the Cosmosphere. Makes as much sense as anything else does.
If I head up north west to the 30th and K61 area, I can visit Dillon Nature Center, a beautiful and peaceful area filled with walking trails and all of nature you could ask for. Over the years my 3 little ones, now very grown up ones, attended summer nature camps on a pretty regular basis. I never tired of picking them up after the first day and hearing the tale of "Charlie the catfish", the "resident legend" of the ponds there. In the fall, I loved to ride my bike out there and hike among the trails. The changing color of the trees' leaves was so beautiful, a sight to see. It was there that I found my love for canoeing and I sure would hope to try that once again before I die... LOL and we'll see how that ends up working out for me.
The Jim Martinez Bike Path from Carey Park to Rice Park, Hutchinson Community College's beautiful campus, the underground walking tunnel at Hutchinson Hospital, The Kansas State Fairgrounds, the Underground Salt Museum, and Bogey's (if you don't know what that is...I do feel so very sorry for you, but if you visit Hutch it won't take you long to figure it out!) are all places that will hold some pretty fond memories for me. Yet even more than the places, I believe I will miss the people~especially the children most of all.
I'll leave behind 3 of my siblings and their families but it's not like I am leaving the country or something... drop off the letter "r" because I'm just leaving the county! And now that I read that phrase, geesch sounds a little too much like my eulogy or something. A lot of Scott family memories were made here in this house that will forever be known as "Grandma Scott's house". Now it will be up to my family members from Sarasota, Florida to take up where I left off. When I move out on March 31st, my sister Kaye and her family will move in. The house will not have a whole lot of time to be lonely which makes me feel much better. I was going to have to make sure that the curtains were drawn so I wouldn't see it crying when I drove away.
Even though I'll still be making the Monday-Friday drive to my teaching job here at Lincoln Elementary, it will seem strange not to go into a Dillon's or WalMart somewhere and hear the shout of a kid somewhere saying "Hey, it's Mrs. Miller!" I could always count on seeing at least one student that I knew from school no matter what day of the week it was at many of our local stores. And you know what, I kind of liked it! :)
We have a lot of unique characters that live in our town...don't know their stories but have always wondered how life turned out for them as it did. Respectfully, I speak of the guy I always referred to as the "can man" who 7 days a week you could see walking down Main Street with a load of aluminum cans on the back of a red wagon. He was always headed towards Midwest Iron on South Main to cash them in. Strange, but many times I would see him at just the right moment in my life...one of my first remembrances of God's whacking me upside the head and telling me "Girl, you don't have it so bad after all!" Ashamedly, I admit right now that I never once stopped to see if he needed anything. I have never once made eye contact with him even when I passed him on the side walk down town. What on earth was my problem? What could I have been so afraid of, that I never even gave him a hello or a smile? I'm still learning a lot about myself in that respect. And I pray to do better. And friends, as the proverbial saying goes...."There but for the grace of God, go I."
I will leave here in 3 weeks with a lump in my throat, I know that to be a fact. I have lived in this county nearly all of my 56 years and there's no way to just walk away and forget where I've been, where I've come from. But I've just got a feeling that something, a part of "the plan" awaits me in Valley Center and there's no way to find out without leaving HERE and going THERE.
And to you, my friends, I say this....Even though I might be a little scared of the unknown ahead of me, I am still more determined than I would ever be afraid. Good night everyone and have a great night's sleep ahead. Peace always~
Dang it! The ONE thing I cannot take with me when I move-my beloved clothesline. It surely has served me well for the past 7 years, during all four seasons of the year. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine :)
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