Time Flies

Time Flies

Time flies when you are having fun.  I have heard that for years but I now know its true.  Our family left the East Coast for unknown territories 16 yrs ago. In tow, a 6yr old in braids, dancing in circles, wishing for her first day of kindergarten and a two year old blond terror complete with cowboy hat, boots, holster and two six shooters.

Before the move, I called the Montessori school in Champaign every day, begging and coaxing for a spot.

We were leaving a hundred acre Montessori school in the pines of Sullivan County, New York where the people were our friends and shared their home and life with students and families.

The children would run through the gardens, dance in a cold brook and play with the cats and goats in this magical surrounding. It was fantasyland for a child as well as parents.  I can still see the smoke curling from the chimney of the stone farmhouse and the towering, gabled barn where children would gather to sing and dance. It was a fairytale place, right out of a children’s book.  Then the day the black bear and her cub showed up in the far meadow, enjoying the sunshine of the spring day. Breathtaking.

We arrived in Champaign in August, breathing in a heat I didn’t know existed. A spot opened in school for our daughter. Two days later she was in her new classroom. She loved it. It was different and yet familiar.

Time flew and my did we have fun. New friends, neighbors, church folk who became family, dinner parties, cul de sac baseball games, dance recitals, vacations, 4^th of July fireworks at the stadium, all with people we never would have met had we not listened to the call of the prairie. Soon it was proms and graduations.

Champaign, you are a good town. A place our children made joyful memories and a place they call home. This town is our family. We may not be townies, but we have been loved by many of them.

This fall we will pick up our toys and move on, but not in our hearts.

Our children will be in colleges in a new town. We will be the new kids on the block too, in another town. Go West young man. I guess my husband took it literally. This new town will be nice, but will never hold the memories of Champaign. Can the memories be as sweet or stories as rich.  No, that happens only where your babies grow up. It’s a one time deal, no do over’s.

Time does fly when you are having fun.  Savor each moment and recognize the gift that each day is.  I will look back at the pictures of that blonde cowboy and dark haired kindergarten girl and remember fondly the home that is ours here, in the prairie.