Boone: The Mind Wanders...

Last Sunday I drove over to Boone, NC to go to a Natural Foods store, the closest one to me. It was a gorgeous sunny day, 2 lane highway traffic was sparse, and I was merely enjoying the day and the drive.  I used to live in Boone so I know it fairly well. Importantly, my mother and step-father had a home there, as did my Aunt Marion and Uncle Mutt, and Aunt Virginia and Uncle Russ.

My family there have all been dead several years or more, yet as I was approaching Boone along the highway coming from Mountain City, TN yesterday, my mind said, "Why not take the shortcut across Beaver Dam and up Hattie Hill to surprise Aunt Marion?"

It actually felt so real that it was a very strange moment...  things have changed, and people are gone, but the mind sometimes strays into the more pleasant past as though it really was real now.

I would have given a lot for another short visit with Aunt Marion. She was the only college-educated one of my mother's siblings, and although dedicated to her religious beliefs, she was a free spirit in many ways. In the years I lived nearby, I'd call her and ask, "Do you want to go to..." and I'd never even get the designation said before she'd say, "Yes!" It didn't matter if it was a horse show off the mountain where I had a horse entered, or to a fabric store 50 miles away. She just liked to go, and experience whatever was out there in the world beyond Boone.