We have just returned from a glorious trip to the homeland. Erie is a great place to be in the summer. We enjoyed beautiful, humidity-free weather, cool evenings, cheap drinks, and fun times with our family and friends. It is hard to compare Erie to Katy. They are very different places. But, what stands out the most is how much I miss the trees and water.
I've been on one Great Lake or another my whole life. Being landlocked is new for me. (I know I can get to Gulf, but we're on the West side of Houston. It's not like I can walk there in 10 minutes!) For one thing, I never know what direction I am going. In Erie, the lake is North and in Chicago, it's East, so it's been a bearing for me directionally, and emotionally. The lakes most dear to me, Erie and Michigan, look beautiful late in the day in the summer, when the sun is low in the sky. Of course, Erie has the best sunsets in the world. I've seen the sunset over the prairie here in Texas, and trust me; it's not the same.
Most of all, what stands out to me when I visit Erie is how steeped it is with a sense of place for all who grew up there. Good or bad, Erie leaves an indelible mark. You feel it when you walk into a smoky bar on State Street, when you talk to people who have literally known you your entire life, when you drive by every moment of who you were, and are, in a completely organic way. It's a place where you are all at once a person of a past life and living in the present. It's odd--slightly disconcerting and comforting at the same time.
But now I am back to Texas--a place so different from what I know. And I wonder how I'll find a sense of place here. Where will I turn, with no lake to guide me?
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5 comments:
I miss Erie on a daily basis! There's something about that town...I used to think it was the people and the friendships that makes it special, but I honestly wonder if there is some sort of element in the soil that keeps drawing people back. Erie magnetism or something.
AND I know exactly what you mean about being disoriented without a body of water as a bearing point. In DC everything just seems so sprawling; the Potomac winds around and I never know which direction I'm driving.
Good to see you at the wedding and so glad we can stay up to date via blog stalking! Hope to see you before Kate and Jim's nuptials!
I just got home from spending 11 days in Erie and felt terribly sad to be leaving. I always miss Erie.
Go Erie! We will all be back there someday, right??
I've been thinking of you during reports of the storm - what a wild few months you've had there all ready!! It's been interesting being back in Erie - with that strong sense of place - after living in the place-less ATL 'burbs. The lake, the beer, the down-to-earthness. You DO start to miss it when you move away!! Good luck with Ike!
Great post! I have never been to to any of the great lakes, missing that since of self is hard to overcome. However, there are some groovy, organic experience out here. Notably, Austin and Town Lake and Lake Travis, I grew up there pretty much and will always feel like home when I visit. Its very awesome, very "keep austin weird" has all of those wonderful things that Austin gives and its very close to us. You should schedule a weekend there and visit 6th street and the lake and all the non tourist areas, go kayaking on town lake with your little one in a big kayak, eat gingerbread pancakes (famous in austin)
anyway, loving your blog
Kelli
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