Roots

I want to share what may have been an insignificant passage that happened this morning. It got me to thinking about family and community and neighbors… and destiny.
My wife and I stopped in at our mechanic this morning. We have been stopping in there quite a bit these past few weeks (if you have been reading along …you know what I mean). This morning’s business was to get the paper work finalized on Ferris’ car and have it hauled off for scrap. Our mechanic, Dave, runs this family garage that has been in town for generations. Dave is the nicest guy you ever wanna meet. Always a chipper hello followed by a ‘How’s the family?’. I don’t think I have ever once left his shop without an anecdote or tale about his family… or perhaps another customer with a problem similar to the one I might be having at the time.

This morning was no different. And even though we were not there about the van… when I asked a question in passing Dave went right out to take a look, kneeling down peering under the carriage, opening the hood and poking around in this crazy 0 degree weather we are having. He made sure I could get through the next couple days safely.
Cuz that’s the kind of guy Dave is.

But what really got me to thinking today was this… while we filled out the paperwork – Dave noticed my wife’s last name on the title. He paused thoughtfully then said, “Say is the same [lastnamehere] who lived over on Suchandsuch Street” … and after some bantering back and forth they discovered that Dave went to high school with my wife’s aunt, and even remembered the little white ranch house where she lived.

These are the things that happen when you live in a community where you grew up, where your parents grew up, where you have local family businesses that have been around for generations. It's not all that common around here these days… in one of the richest counties in the U.S. – with transplants from all over, and so many who grew up here saying they can’t wait to get out.

I don’t think either of us stayed here because of any of this. We just did. It just happened this way, made sense this way, worked out well this way. This, I suppose, is what destiny is.
It made me feel good today, even proud… to still be here-- near where I grew up, near where my parents first met, near where my grandparents settled right off the boat from Italy.

My wife and I often marvel at how many times our lives intertwined before we met – without us even knowing.

We have talked of moving… off to PTown, or up to Canada to marry, or why not to a warmer climate – but if we end up here, where generations before us were, where we were born, where our children were born, so be it – perhaps… I will even revel it in.