Oh Look, It's Martha From Texas!

Well, we're planning a trip to Toronto in the spring! Even after twelve years in East Texas, I still enjoy going "home" for a visit! I think probably everyone who lives far away from where they were raised feels the same way!

We were there the year before last and since then one cousin and one friend have died. Time does march on and although I don't dwell on it, I do feel bad that I am not there to be part of the grieving process and so closure is a bit harder for me.

Writing my book, Bumpy Road To Texas, has helped me put several things into perspective. Also, it is so nifty that I have a close friend living near me who shares Canadian roots with me.

I think people who have always lived in one place, or at least in the same country all of their life do not realize that just the little things you take for granted make up part of the picture you look for when you go "back home".

We have often gone up in May and that is in part because my High School Reunion is held then. My birthday is then too, so I always look for lilac bushes because in North Toronto, that is when they bloomed. We always picked bouquets and brought them in on my birthday. We have bushes called Crepe Myrtle here in East Texas and they look very similar but they do not have the same scent.

I always go to Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaws. I usually go to the Bay because they generally have some nifty souvenirs. Yes, we do have drug stores and grocery stores and a department store here. You cannot get a Hudson Bay Company striped scarf at the Belk Department store and you cannot purchase Habitant French-Canadian Pea Soup at Brookshire's!

Swiss Chalet is always the first restaurant I look for in any Canadian city. Now, Hubby Keith does not always order the Quarter Chicken Dinner and that really centers him out as an American! To me, Swiss Chalet is a BBQ chicken restaurant, but to an Southern American, barbeque is "kicked-up" a lot hotter than that. Ah, yes, that reminds me that I really must take a bottle of real hot sauce . . .

Toronto has got bigger and bigger and so I am very lucky that I still have friends in Port Hope where it is very laid back. Oh yes, there is a Swiss Chalet there!

I think one of the very best parts of "going home" is that it always seems like just yesterday I last saw everyone. That probably has a lot to do with keeping in touch via e-mail and Facebook.

There is one young man who wasn't yet born when I lived there. So William sees me a little differently. I will knock on the door at number 17 and he will open it and say,

"Oh look, it's Martha from Texas!"