As you can see, I’m about 495 miles from Dunbar, WV — my hometown. But I’ve also been 251 miles (Greensboro, NC), 507 miles (Atlanta, GA), and 2324 miles (Santa Clarita, CA). When I was young I repeatedly proclaimed that I’d never leave West Virginia, and meant it. I’m not sure what that was rooted in, but felt strongly about it. Then I began to panic as my 23rd birthday approached and didn’t have jack-shit going on. So, I not only left my parents’ house, but left the state. It was a sudden and out-of-left field decision, but I don’t regret it. It worked out OK. I still love West Virginia, of course, but have had many cherished adventures since I left there.
The reason I bring this up… apparently one of our kids is moving out this summer. He’s also 22, same age as I was. But I feel weird about it. He has one year left of college, and I wish he’d just continue living here until he graduates. But, it’s his decision. He accused me of talking him out of it the last time this came up, and he’s absolutely correct about that. I tried to do it again this time. Oh well. Maybe it will do him some good somehow? He’s pretty mature, so there’s not a lot o’ growing up he needs to do. Not like me at that age; I was a freaking basket-case. But, something maybe. We’ll see.
How far from your hometown are you? And if you’re still in your hometown, how far are you from your childhood home? Please tell us about it. Use the comments.
The boy, in case you were wondering, will be fewer than 10 miles from us. So, he’s not venturing far. Just… out. Like I say, I feel weird about it. Sometimes this house seems pretty damned crowded with four adults living in it. But I get no joy from the thought of one of us not being here. I know it’s inevitable, and the way of the world. But I don’t have to love it, do I?
In any case, how far have you ventured? Please bring us up to date on it.
And I’ll see you guys again soon.
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I am currently 285 miles from my hometown. I have been as far as 680 miles, then 556 miles. My next move will put me 1,119 miles away.
I’m currently 2352 miles from the house I grew up in.
2359 for me! According to Google maps, anyway.
About 45 miles from where I grew up. If we ever get to retire, it will be about 200 miles.
Jeff, I can’t believe your youngest is 22! Wish where does the time go?
Not counting time in the military – about 20 miles.
About 3000 miles. It used to be about 6000 miles.
I’m suspicious of people who live their entire lives within walking distance of where they grew up, probably unfairly on my part.
Yes, I’m glad I didn’t venture away to see all of the bullshit that you only see on TV news. No need for the extra stress.
Currently, one state away, 916 miles. Retirement will add another state maybe even a country if we’re lucky.
Depending on how you measure it, we moved 5 blocks when I was going into 5th grade, but either way, I could hit both homes with a clay mortar, from where I live now. I got lucky. My dad grabbed my collar when I was a 21 year old full-of-shitter and said, you’re going with me and you’re taking a civil service test to get a state job. Best thing that ever happened to me. I worked for the state a couple years, then impressed a boss enough to jump to private industry when he did. I lasted 13 years longer than he did at that law firm (he was fired after 3 years). Jumped to one other job and have been here for 17 years and have the best employer one can hope to have. Yes, I’m one of the lucky WV’ers who was able to find good work and stay home. And, I have no regrets.
1406 miles from where I grew up. Different country too.
I was born and raised in Flint, MI (but I’m feeling much better now….). I’ve lived in a couple nearby places (Davison – 10 miles, Swartz Creek – 10 miles the other way), then moved 180 miles away (Alden). In 2006 we quit pussy-footin’ around and moved 1,980 miles to Arcosanti, AZ, then a bit further yet to Prescott, AZ (1,994 miles). Got tired of the dry and moved to the wet in Sanford, FL (1,176 miles), then moved to Zephyrhills, FL (1,198 miles) to help take care of my parents when they did the snowbird thing. Now we do six months in Z-hills, FL and six months in Alden, MI tagging along with my parents.
I’ve been here in Norther VA for almost 25 years now; about the same distance from where I was born as your are now, Jeff. I’ve lived in 5 other places, some quite a bit further away. My first year after college I was but 90 miles away in “lovely” Columbus, OH. But I was during college that I first really “moved away” when I journeyed to Austin, TX (the first of 3 times) to intern with IBM. I turned 22 while I was down there (and wrecked my car, drunkenly, that night). It was something – to be on your own for the first time; REALLY on my own. I knew it was progress, of a sort (although there were several steps backward before I finally left home for good). Still – when I came home from TX that first time, just before Christmas in 1984, I came down that last hill on I-75 in Kentucky and the lit-up downtown came into view – and I had tears in my eyes. I was HOME.
Taking out the military, which at times, I was thousands of miles away, I am currently 82 miles from the house I grew up in.
500 miles, give or take, from my childhood home. Being that a drive there would take me through both NoVa AND NYC, I’d have to plan for at least 12 hours in the car. Bleah.
First moved 750 miles away, then 1900. Relocated to 1500, back to 1900. Now I’m 830 and we plan to retire here. My brother has never lived more than 1/10 of a mile from our childhood home.
You should try living 753 or 1541 miles away and see what happens!!
I moved to guam in 1972 to work at the nasa tracking station on apollo 17.
Cool reason to move, cool place to move to! Still there?
According to my phone I am 185.3 miles away.
Currently 56 miles. In our early married life, 1173.
0 miles. I was born in the house (well, I was born in the hospital) I’m in now. 1975 was an “exciting” year…
Everytime I think about running away, I realize I’mma still be there, so…
This response has made me realize the only other state I’ve ever been in is Illinois…and I’m in ST. LOUIS!
At the age of 17 I somehow found myself at Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri. Approximately 500 miles from La Crosse, Wisconsin where I had spent those first 17 years. Currently 1636 miles from La Crosse in Emmett, Idaho. The farthest I’ve found myself from there for any length of time would have been probably Oakhurst, California (And from there to the real Squaw Valley, out in the Sierra foothills close to Kings Canyon National Park. Hence the user name.) at 2125 miles away. In between those locations were a bunch of other minor stops along the way. Emmett is home now, and likely will be until someone dumps my ashes out under a rock, or whatever the hell they decide to do at that point. I won’t really care, I’m guessing.
2797.3 miles. I would be further but that would have me living in the Pacific Ocean.
3 hours, 2.5 hours, 2 hours,10 minutes, 5 minutes, .5 hours, .5 hours, 6.5 hours, 5 hours, 10 minutes, 3 minutes.
Shemp Howard was in the original group. He created and helped create some of the seminal Stooges’ material. And who has the audacity to rate the stooges? It’s like rating the Holy Trinity. You can prefer one of the manifestations, but it’s really just one act.
John
2,508 west from Wheeling WV
4,616 miles, been that way for going on 22 years. Miss some of the people, don’t miss the place.
One of the guys who lived farthest away from home died today. My favorite astronaut, Michael Collins, died of cancer at 90. He was bright, fearless, a fine writer, and a genuine visionary. The book he wrote after returning from the Moon and retiring from the astronaut corps, “Carrying the Fire” is the best book written by an astronaut. I read it in my 20s and my 50s, and it easily ranks among the 20 best books I’ve read.
After “retiring”, Mr. Collins got the job of running the National Air and Space Museum which, at the time, was a hole in the ground in Washington D.C. Mr. Collins helped design the exhibits and created the broad themes of the museum. After getting the museum up and running, he was appointed to run the entire Smithsonian Institution. He managed to get the coolest jobs available at the time.
I can’t recommend “Carrying the Fire” strongly enough. You might end up liking and admiring Mike Collins as much as I do.
The day is clear and calm. Great day for a quiet flight around the moon. I wish Mike good luck and unlimited visibility. He’s already completed his assignments on Earth.
John
Carrying the Fire is on my (very) lengthy To Read List. I’ve just moved it way up. Now I just need to retire, have a tree to sit under, and get reading.
Mike washed out the first time he applied for the astronaut job. He’s convinced it’s because he identified the all-white inside cover of the Rorschach test package as “eleven polar bears fucking in a snowbank.” He was a pretty serious guy and he wanted to show the NASA interviewers that he had a sense of humor. It kind of backfired, so two years later when he was again a finalist he identified the white page as “my mother and my father, and my father was slightly larger and more authoritarian but not too much more than my mother.” He passed.
He has a couple hundred stories like that. He also slightly regretted telling the interviewer that he wanted to become an astronaut “to get into a less hazardous line of work”. He was a test pilot in the California desert at the time and he kept losing friends. He was sort of serious about the answer, but NASA liked things black and white.
You don’t spend the first half of your working life risking your neck in airplanes and the second half of your working life risking your ass in government jobs without a little gallows humor. I would say he was closer to charming than funny, but he was certainly both.
John
. . . and he did spend a little time working 239,000 miles from the houses he grew up in around the country and around the world.
jtb
Collins snapped an incredible picture from the command module during Apollo 11 which I absolutely love. The lunar module (containing Armstrong and Aldrin) was in the foreground, and the earth was behind them. That photograph contained an image of every single person who had ever lived except for one…Michael Collins!
History nerds might enjoy @BeschlossDC. His Twitter account is public so anyone can read it. This morning he posted a copy of the U.S. Customs form that the Apollo 11 astronauts submitted for the moon rocks they collected.
Here in northern Virginia, I’m 245 miles from my childhood home in Brooklyn as the Studebaker flies. It’s the farthest away I’ve ever lived.
Currently 31 miles. In the next year or so it will double to 62. (Just bought a lot to build on.)
Furthest was 323 miles, the place we moved from to our current location.
At the tender age of 19 I got a dui and was supposed to go to court where my court appointed lawyer (who had Down syndrome) assured me that I’d be locked up for at least 60 days. I didn’t go.
Instead I drove to Texarkana and called them a week later. “Well there’s a warrant for your arrest, Sir. You need to turn yourself in!” I said, “Naw, y’all are gonna have to CATCH me.” And hung up the phone and went on the lamb. I moved 760 miles to N. Alabama where I stayed for 10 years. Then Atlanta, Jackson, Nashville, Louisville, all around the south.
In 2017 I moved back to Texas where I’m currently about 8 miles from my childhood home. I’ve been pulled over a couple of times since then and there’s never been any mention of my dui from the 90’s.
I currently live 5,228 feet from my childhood home. My first move from home was 3.5 miles, second was about 17 miles and my third move was less than two blocks from home. I also spent a year and a half on a temporary assignment in Greensburg Indiana when Honda built a plant down there, which was 120 miles away.
I first moved 415 miles away to Norfolk, and then moved to Raleigh, which is 330 miles from Charleston, WV where I was born and raised.
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If our parents are gone and our siblings and their kids have moved on, it doesn’t matter how far we are from home; the entire concept of “home” has changed under those circumstances. At best, we create a new home to which kids and other relatives (northern version) kin (southern version) can return. It then becomes our turn to make them feel like there’s a place called home. Some species of birds can find the general area of their birth nest from across continents. When female birds create their own nests, their brain GPS modules erase the coordinates of their own origin and plug in the coordinates of their new nest. Because we share common ancestors, our brains perform much the same function as we create our own homes. Of course, we can’t fly there blindfolded: we replaced the auto-locate function with the ability to read maps (but not to refold them — thus the need for digital mapping). I wish one of you academics would do some work on this so we can identify the area of our brains that is analogous to the avian GPS function. You can’t go home again, but the urge to long to is an important component of our emotional makeup.
John
April 30, 2021