Me…not the newspaper. I took a drive today and took some of these photos of the wonderful scenery. Now…to be honest these were actually taken in Kentucky but they could just as easily have been in any of the rural areas surrounding Nashville and for the purposes of my point…they are just fine.
When I passed this tobacco barn, complete with tobacco hanging from the rafters my emotions went all fizzy and I felt myself getting ready to erupt with nostalgia. It struck me that though I have no connection with tobacco growing or the process involved in turning it into cigars, these barns and fields and the smell of tobacco firing have become a part of what I consider home. As of September of this year I have officially been a resident of Tennessee for over half of my life. Most of my adult memories are here. And though the sweetness of midnight snowfalls, vast cornfields stretched over dark soil and the twisting streams and countless lakes of Michigan still hold great sway in me, I am realizing my heart yearns almost equally for the small barns, the mild winters and the rolling hills of Tennessee.
I completely understand. I only lived in Virginia for 4 years and yet it feels like home as well. I’m not quite to the half of my life mark in Ft. Wayne, but not far off.
I’m right there with you. We’ve only been here for 8 years but I’m forgetting what it feels like to be a Floridian. I think I’d die without an actual autumn and winter.
Love the pictures.
I want to be a Tennessean when I grow up!
Beautiful pictures. I long for TN, and I have lived there for exactly 0.00% of my life! But that will change.
Oh, oh, oh. Oh, I love those pictures. The little midwestern girl in me still longs for fall. We drive through Kentucky when we visit Chris’ family. We take 24 through Nashville and then 41 through Kentucky to get to Indiana. I have seen some of the most beautiful barns ever on that road. I always wish I was driving by myself so I could get out and take photos – but my honey just doesn’t understand why we’d need to slow down for it. Of course, I’ve seen some to rival their beauty in rural Wisconsin and Iowa too….but barns, and especially those rickety tobacco barns, always tug and squeeze at somethin’ in my heart 🙂
So lovely.
I’m not there yet. I mean, Nashville is DEFINITELY home, but I do not like all parts of it (sticky humid summer).
I think I pick and choose parts of the places I’ve been as my favorite. Fall foliage in Nashville. Gloomy rain from London. Clear cool June in Chicago (this is a new discovery… maybe it’s not always so wonderful). Morning foggy haze on the SoCal coast.
Tisra, I don’t necessarily like all parts of it either. Just as I never liked March in Michigan, I don’t like the sticky summers here either.
I just feel that pull in me that desires to relate to the landscape here and be at home in it. It’s hard to describe, but it has a certain amount of pride that goes with it, almost like patriotism but more intimate and personal. I used to only feel it when I visited Michigan…even in the weather I didn’t like, it was something about being in a familiar and almost unchanging environment. Yesterday, I felt that same pull in a different home.
I don’t think I’ve ever specifically been to Chicago in June but having grown up in that area, I love May and June in that part of the country.
When I used to travel I experienced some of the best and worst of certain parts of this country at different times of year. I always dreamed of owning little houses in different areas so that I could rotate through the seasons at optimal locations.
I guess I should have just called you to respond to that Tisra, this is turning into a post in itself.