I wonder about that hometown business. I was born there and yes I grew up for several years there. But hometown?
What qualifies a hometown, a place you come from? Where you were born or grew up or simply a place you feel at home?
I prefer the last option. By far.
In that case I would have had several hometown relationships over the years.
Berne in Switzerland was a place I loved and visited for many many years. Swimming in the Aare, walking in the old town and along the river, sitting in the sun on the Munster terrasse, eating Paella at Commerce, cheese fondue at Harmonie, seeing friends, going to the museums, the tierpark, but most importantly Elka, the woman I visited.
Cambridge, Mass. was a hometown for several years also.
Provincetown an instant love affair which continues.
NYC, in particular Manhattan, in the late seventies when I fell in love with it.
I do like LA but not like a hometown, London...complicated..., Newcastle...no way!
Bergen I adored!
Bomarzo was a hometown for as long as I lived there and it has a very special place in my heart.
There are other places and traces of living but I think I have covered the main suspects.
Stockholm was a formative place to grow up in.
2 comments:
yes- I envy people who have lived happily in one place throughout their lives. (Not many these days!) We have a neighbour who built his own house next door to the one where he was born. He knows every intimate subtlety of landscape and wildlife, as well as the history of the town - he is truly a part of the place and the place is a part of him.
I agree with you. I don't envy them though because I feel grateful for having had several opportunities at close relationships rather than just the one. Because you cannot choose where you are born. You cannot choose the landscape and the family. God help us if it is not a good match.
I need water. Living near water, be it the sea, a river, a lake...
Water is my family!
As you say examples like "your man" are rare, very very rare indeed. I knew a farmer like that once.
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