Trip home!!

They say you can never go home again. Well after being gone from Kulm, ND for 42 years going back there , a lot of memories came back. Oh I make it there once or twice a year, I have a brother and 2 sisters that still live there.

Last weekend Jim and I spent from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon there. There was no wedding, no reunion, no funeral and no celebration either. It was just a visit back there to see my siblings. I guess it was this fact that my mind had more time to just take in the small town and think of how it used to be when I lived there so many years ago.

Soooo many changes and yet in some ways nothing had changed. One of the major changes was going back to the church I grew up in and recognized only my cousins, and siblings there. So many new faces. Another change now outside of the town between Edgeley and Kulm are many huge electric generating windmills. My sister tells me that all the revenue to the county from them are going to the schools and each kid gets a palm pilot, and notebook computer to use for the school year and both the elementary and high school are air conditioned. Wow,, what a difference from when I attended there. Very little dairy farming goes on there anymore. Mostly huge grain farms or farmers have put thier land into something called CRP (I think) where the government pays them not to farm the land. That didnt happen when I lived there 42 years ago. All available land was planted and harvested. Also, there is so much water there. The road up to the farm where I grew up, is under water and to get there you have to cut through CRP land and other fields. My brother tells me its it because small dams (built to keep water for the cattle) have broken and with so little dairy in the area, those are not fixed so the water drains. I remember when I was very young we had a large lake not 1/2 mile from the hosue where there were fish and people boated, but that completely dried up over the years, no doubt from farmers building those small dams, well it is all back and then some. Last time I was out to the farm (last year) I was struck with the beauty of the area. When I was growing up I didnt think it was so beautiful, but eastern ND where I grew up are some very nice rolling hills. I do remember we had a large hill behind the house where we lived, and my little brother and I many times used to run up that hill and watch the sun set a 2nd time. Warm memory!!
Another thing that hasnt changed is the clear blue skies and clean air.

Main street has changed very little in how it looks. Oh there are different businesses in the buildings but the buildings look much the same. The cafe has been in the same spot since I was a very little girl. Many owners including my sister and my niece and some remodeling in the inside but the same spot.

As we were traveling back to Minnesota on Sunday, there were many melancholy feelings that passed through my mind/heart. Thoughts of wishing it could be like it used to be, but knowing it never will be and knowing in my heart, that I could never go back.

Sandi