Digging through the Past

The holiday season is always a peculiar time in my hometown. In a town where the population hasn't changed in the last 2o-some-odd years, one fact remains the same...the population is always changing. Stay with me on this. The year I graduated there were approximately 300 graduates spread between the town's two high schools. Figure that there are also 300 kids born that year (to make 300 graduates in 18 years...) Yet, the census figures stay that same. That means that each year approximately 300 people move out of town, to be replaced by the newborns--that doesn't even start to take into account the deaths, but you get where I'm going with this. A comment was made a few days ago - (Town Name) is a great town to be FROM...yeah... Anyway, the Christmas season inevitably turns the city into one giant merry-go-round, with people filing in for visits from whatever city they escaped to. Gatherings are held with friends and family alike, and the once yearly how-ya-been-what's-new-where-ya-at-now takes place. My first exposure to this year's festivities was tonight. My sister and I drove home to have our gift exchange with our closest family friends. The six of us (2 moms and 2 daughters each) spent 4 hours laughing at memories past, in the nearly 35 years of family friendship--and yet the stories never seem to repeat themselves. This is the part of the year that I like best. When we can all come together and spend a few minutes remembering what it was like before life got in the way.