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Are you a homebody or a wanderlust?
Feb. 16th, 2010 01:01 pmAre you a homebody or a wanderlust?
I've always been a homebody. I remember going on family trips when I was very small and crying from homesickness. It's funny because my mother's side of the family has a deep wanderlust. My great-great grandfather (or maybe it was great-great-great?!) came in a wagon trail from Missouri to Calif. in the mid 1800's. He settled in a small town that we lived in until I graduated high school, and it seemed half the town was related, as he went on to have two wives and 16 or 17 children, plus the second wife came with a few children of her own. I always wonder what brought them to come that great distance under such hardships (think Donner party here, although I'm not sure if that tragedy came before or after my ancestors came across the Sierras), knowing they'd most likely never set sight on their extended family again. There were no telephones to keep in touch, only letters. We're lucky to have a couple of those letters that we found in an old family bible.
His daughter married a man that couldn't settle anywhere, from what I've gleaned. My great-grandmother married and had 8 children. One of them, my grandfather's brother, ended up in South America somewhere, still unsure where or why. Wandering, looking for the next best thing I suppose. Another moved here and there. My grandfather stayed in the same town his entire life. My mother has, too, but she's always loved to travel.
But me, I hate traveling. I think it's genetic, this not wanting to stray. I often wonder where I got the homebodiness from. Maybe my paternal grandmother, although she and my grandfather left their family home in Texas during the Dust Bowl to come to California, and she never went back. I live in a mid-sized city only 20 miles from my birthplace, the town where my great-great-whatever-grandfather settled in all those years ago.
What is it that ties us to a place? I don't really know, but I think it's an interesting thought for character development.
I've always been a homebody. I remember going on family trips when I was very small and crying from homesickness. It's funny because my mother's side of the family has a deep wanderlust. My great-great grandfather (or maybe it was great-great-great?!) came in a wagon trail from Missouri to Calif. in the mid 1800's. He settled in a small town that we lived in until I graduated high school, and it seemed half the town was related, as he went on to have two wives and 16 or 17 children, plus the second wife came with a few children of her own. I always wonder what brought them to come that great distance under such hardships (think Donner party here, although I'm not sure if that tragedy came before or after my ancestors came across the Sierras), knowing they'd most likely never set sight on their extended family again. There were no telephones to keep in touch, only letters. We're lucky to have a couple of those letters that we found in an old family bible.
His daughter married a man that couldn't settle anywhere, from what I've gleaned. My great-grandmother married and had 8 children. One of them, my grandfather's brother, ended up in South America somewhere, still unsure where or why. Wandering, looking for the next best thing I suppose. Another moved here and there. My grandfather stayed in the same town his entire life. My mother has, too, but she's always loved to travel.
But me, I hate traveling. I think it's genetic, this not wanting to stray. I often wonder where I got the homebodiness from. Maybe my paternal grandmother, although she and my grandfather left their family home in Texas during the Dust Bowl to come to California, and she never went back. I live in a mid-sized city only 20 miles from my birthplace, the town where my great-great-whatever-grandfather settled in all those years ago.
What is it that ties us to a place? I don't really know, but I think it's an interesting thought for character development.
