Moving Day?

"The best laid plans of mice and men may often go awry..." I forget who said that but I know it's true. Despite the Grand Plan that called for The Normanator and me to build a dome home, we find ourselves feathering a new nest, and it's not the nest we expected.

But it's been exciting, really. The new digs are only 5 blocks from the old place. That made no difference when it came to the weight of the old furniture, boxes of books and all those doo dads.

Most people think of moving as drudgery. It's true; it's very labor intensive. But some of my happiest childhood memories revolve around the household moves our little family made.

My parents had a wonderful way of turning the fearful matter of giving up the familiarity of friends and routine into an adventure that could have been a fantasy dream sequence! Mom made sure we ordered the newspaper from the new town so we knew a little about the names and stores and goings on. She and Dad included me in the details of the packing and unpacking and the picnicking that took place before the kitchen things were in place.

The summer we moved from the little Nebraska towns of Central City to Elwood gave us enough adventures to keep us laughing for decades.

My parents bought a small empty building on the main street that became a package liquor store. In order to create that business, my dad hired a fellow from Central City and the two of them drove to Elwood to do the carpentry work. Percy fell asleep in my dad's 1938 Chevvy and happened to wake up as they drove through Kearney, NE. Percy saw the Indian Tipi motel along the highway and in his sleepy fog, was sure they were going to be attacked by Indians! My dad laughed so hard he could barely drive. As he recalled the story for mom and me and anyone else who would listen over the years, he could scarcely TALK for laughing!

When the store was ready for business, my dad took a few items and stayed in the rooming house he and Percy had rented during the renovation. Dad was living and working in Elwood; that left Mom and me to get everything packed into the car. We left our furniture in the old house and moved into the rooming house temporarily. After a few weeks we were able to move into a furnished basement apartment.

Mom packed that Chevvy to the gills. It was unseasonably HOT and we had to move Murgatroyd, our family cat. Murgatroyd was no traveler and he did NOT appreciate that we were having an adventure! He shed, we sweat, he yowled and we covered our ears! The trip seemed very, very long in the sweltering Nebraska heat. Every time the car paused for a traffic light, Murgatroyd would leap, hair a-flying, to the open windows. We were worried he would escape. Murgatroyd wanted to lie on Mom's shoulders as she drove in that heat and while it made for a very long trip at the time, it provided us many laughs over the years as we recounted our moving adventures.

Someday I'll have to tell you about the time we moved into a motel and hosted a spaghetti supper!

My folks always lived their lives with love and in truth. They were prompted to make the move to Elwood, driven by the belief that they could provide a good living in this new chapter of our lives. It would please them very much, if they were here today, to know about The Healing Codes .

Connie Baum