The Last 4th of July

Picture from a great collection on flickr, please click link to view other fantastic shots of Cd'A

My parents have decided to move away from my hometown to be closer to my brother and sister. They've sold the house and are packing things up. This weekend, we're going home one last time to make sure that I haven’t forgotten some trinket of my youth that I might still want before they pack up and dispose of the contents of my childhood bedroom..

It's going to be a strange, melancholy 4th of July. I imagine there will be lots of long pauses in the random rooms as I try to simultaneously remember events that occurred there and freeze the room in my mind's eye so I won't forget tomorrow what my home looked like.

Beyond this, I wonder if I'll ever really make it back to Coeur d'Alene after this weekend in any meaningful way. Sure, I have in-laws in Spokane and a brother in Sandpoint that will bring me near to Coeur d'Alene, but will Coeur d'Alene merely become another town I pass thru on my way to Sandpoint, a place for a hamburger at Huddies or a coffee at Java before moving on? Will I merely look out the window at the lake and shrug and think, I used to live here; didn't I? Will my relationship to the town become be diluted to an occasional round of golf? When will I stop thinking that Coeur d'Alene is my home?

Already, I suppose. I’m fully integrated into Seattle now. I am accustomed to the traffic and the rain, whenever I leave Seattle and head back to Idaho I am cognizant of how dry and empty the state seems. Yet, there is still something about Idaho that still calls to me. Is it the geography, the people, or something else; a feeling of familiarity, perhaps? I suppose when this familiarity fades over time spent away from Cd'A, then will it become just another pretty town with a nice lake and gorgeous forests, a place that I once knew, I place that called home.