The Snowbird

In house terms, we own an old house in an even older town. According to county records, only three families have lived in this house for any length of time. There is the Davis family, who lived here from circa 1895-1935. The Greenville's lived here from sometime in the 40's until 1978 and then the Young's, us, from 1978 until the present, November 11, 2009. We closed on the house on same day that "old man" Greenville passed away. It is a house that has experienced several upgrades over its lifetime. In our time alone, we have remodeled the interior and sided the house in 1988, tore down the old dilapidated garage and put up an attached porch/two car garage in 1993, an inground pool in 1994, remodeled the kitchen, dining room, master bedroom and pantry during the period 2003-2007. Last year we replaced all the carpeting in the living room, up the stairs and in the two guest rooms. In these terms, it is the house from hell, a veritable money pit.

Russell, on the other hand, is a town that has changed but little since we moved here. The (in)famous hotel burned the same year I started teaching at Knox Memorial. There have been about three other major changes in the 30 odd years we've lived here. The Kunoco was built on the ruins of the town's former gas station (which also burned). It is a convenience store/gas station/occasional meeting place for coffee and forgettable conversation. Secondly, and probably most importantly, was the merger of Edwards Central and Knox Memorial into Edwards-Knox, which prompted the building of a fine new school with the amenities of much larger schools. The old schools were closed, Edwards being partially torn down, and Knox Memorial is in the irrevocable process of falling down. Recently, the "corner store" was torn down by the fire department, a long anticipated event due to the fact that the former store was in ill repair and an unmitigated eye sore.

Of course there have been other "improvements". A library was built next to the fire department, new people moved in but others quietly left, the Catholic Church closed, later to become an upgrade for the library/museum and the old library became a health center.

Our house of 31 plus years comes with 36 acres (39 according to the tax records). We have ATV trails over much of it and I've cut wood up there for most of these years. For the first eight years we lived here, it was the only source of heat we had. It necessitated getting up in the night and feeding the stove so that it would be somewhat warm in the morning. Winter mornings could range as low as -40 degrees (F). Then we put in a propane furnace which allowed us to sleep all night for a number of years. The price of gas began to fluctuate wildly around 2005 and we began to earnestly use the wood stove. By 2007 we had both retired from teaching and began to spend huge chunks of time in Myrtle Beach in the winter. Our house in MB was completed in April, 2009 and we spent odd weeks here over the spring and summer, finally landing for the winter on November 8. Our plans are to travel back north for Christmas and to return early in January to stay until May 1st. We had anticipated staying until May 15 but relatives invited themselves up to stay at our home in Russell before that date and Tricia doesn't know how to say no. My reasoning for staying that late was to celebrate cinquo de mayo in MB, an irrelevant holiday to some in Mexico and the US.

Our Russell home is heated to 50 degrees while we are here and the upstairs is closed off altogether. We hired someone to plow our driveway so that the gas truck could get in and then we drove away. Behind us are a ton of memories, including four extraordinary kids, pets beyond number, our pioneer days (as we call them), our careers, a couple recalcitrant ghosts, Russell Rescue, friends and, of course, our share of disappointments, regrets and disillusionments that make up a lifetime.

Our goal now is to live until our money is gone. Then the kids can divide the houses and hopefully pay off their education loans (yeah, one monstrous regret of ours). Please mix our remaining ashes and find an appropriate place to bury them where we can overlook the house and town.

It is raining now in Myrtle Beach and it is an extremely gloomy day, but I got my run in and all is well. How many of us can actually say that? We have worked hard and been fortunate in a lot of ways. Later today we will sit down and read. Tricia is preparing an appropriate meal for a lousy day and the sun's absence is just a passing inconvenience. Tomorrow will be better. That's why tomorrows are made. Tricia and I recognize that our visions have not been perfect, but they are ours and, anyway, imperfection is the root of all hope.