Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Going Home

Going Home

The barn

Photography and text: Corey Amaro

 

My bag is packed.

Ticket in hand.

Ready to go.

 

 

 

Rice fields

 

I look forward to driving on the back roads

October is Willows is the best time of the year:

The harvest, the golden hue, the open spaces to stand in awe.

Sunsets.

 

 

Road W

 

Going home.

 

Open space

 

I heard somewhere that the place where one lived when they are around twelve years old has a lasting impression on ones visual concept of beauty and color.

Barn

Old barns.

Dairies,

Pick up trucks,

Rice fields.

Children come and go.

 

   
Barn rd 44

 

Do you live in the same place where you were born?

 

Comments

39 responses to “Going Home”

  1. Maria

    I do. I moved away when first married, but hurried back when we could. I am just 1.5 miles from my childhood home…it is dear to me….

    Reply
  2. Zosia

    Now I do.
    Safe travels.

    Reply
  3. Liz

    I live 1 mile from my family home and Catholic Parish that I grew up in. We moved from the north side to the south side of Houston Texas, when I was 4 years old. That was 50 years ago. I never left, except to travel, of course. Anyway, I don’t think we will ever move from this house that I haved now lived in my whole married life(30 years). If I did ever move, I would like to take up residence in Italy where my grandfather and grandmother were from. Having dual citizenship(American/Italian,) just might help this dream come true…We’ll see!

    Reply
  4. Bev S.

    I live a long way from home (not as far as you Corey). I would like to live closer but don’t know if that will happen.
    Safe travels and Godspeed.

    Reply
  5. kristin

    I live on the opposite coast! One ocean to the other ocean, literally! My big thing when I move from place to place is water. I guess it is from growing up on an island… I feel trapped without water around!

    Reply
  6. WR

    No, I do not. But every once in a while, I drive the 4 1/2 hours north and feel a kind of a kind of peace as I pierce through the flat wheatfields and endless blue sky. When I get really lucky, I see Northern Lights…

    Reply
  7. Marie-Noëlle

    420 kms away from my birthplace.
    Left the vinyards for the cress fields…
    Left the river Saône for the river Essonne…
    …
    Left an area where Beaujolais wine is a daily king for another where it is a one-day prince …

    Reply
  8. Amy Kortuem

    I live in the city where I was born. I live 7 miles from my parents’ home, where they’ve lived since I was 10.
    But “childhood home” will always be my grandparents’ home in a tiny town about 45 miles south of where I live now.

    Reply
  9. Nicolette

    I love reading your words on how you describe Willows. I get to see our town in a different light. It’s interesting how two people grew up in the same town and see it in a completely different way. When it comes down to it…it’s all about family and how the person was raised.
    Enjoy your visit with your family and enjoy your Willows,(It’s beautiful).

    Reply
  10. Laurie SF

    Bona fide country girl, that’s me …living in San Francisco. I’ll always be a Willows girl at heart. A job for Corey’s brothers: Let’s throw a barn dance for your sister, complete with plywood/dirt dance floor and outdoor bonfire. Invite all those Tongue in Cheekers. What fun!

    Reply
  11. Anjanette

    I feel like I was raised two places, neither where I was born. I was blessed to attend a Catholic School in Paradise through 7th grade and then 8th – 12th in Willows High School (we were the first 8th grade class there). I am happy to be raising my children in Willows, where I consider them to be “born” even though it was at a hospital in Chico, a mere technicality!
    I feel love you write for you home town, Corey. Safe travels and have a wonderful time at Spellbound, I am sure you will inspire many!!

    Reply
  12. Anjanette

    What a wonderful idea!! You can Lindy Hop with them all!!!

    Reply
  13. Jeanne

    Yes I live in the same place I was born………
    Love your postings……..Safe travels home.

    Reply
  14. Jeannie

    Where I was born and lived my younger days looks a lot like Willows without the rice fields. Dairies abounded and fields of peas, berries, potatoes, and corn. Now, home is the arid landscape of dryland wheat, vineyards, orchards, and sagebrush. It is only 240 miles away from my childhood home, but it might as well be 2,400 in climate and attitude.

    Reply
  15. Jenna

    I don’t, but I grew up not far from here. Have a safe trip.

    Reply
  16. Linda P.

    No, I don’t live where I was born. When I was 12, I lived in a refinery town on the Texas Gulf Coast where the only beauty was found in the nighttime shimmer of lights on the refinery equipment. My childhood home of my heart is my birthplace, where my grandparents lived, in the mixed pines and hardwood forests of far northwest Louisiana. This time of year, the sweetgums will be turning vivid colors.

    Reply
  17. Kathie B

    We live far from home. But hey, that’s life.
    Corey, do you vote when you come home? Whether or not you do, could you compile a photo essay for us on the day after Election Day, on what it was like in Willows? Having grown up a city kid, I guess I harbor this fantasy that in small towns it’s like in that episode of “Northern Exposure” 😉

    Reply
  18. Kathie B

    I.e., a photo essay ABOUT Election Day in Willows (but obviously not posted till after it’s all over)!

    Reply
  19. Diane

    I moved from the San Francisco peninsula to the foothills of the Sierras…but I still go back every now and then. The neighborhood I remember is all built into mega houses on little lots now, so it has changed, but I see trees I remember and the curve of the street is the same one I came around every day after school. My mother’s love of simple beauty (good fabric, dark wood, great books, flower arrangements) is my standard of beautiful. I am grateful for it every single day.
    Happy travels.
    Diane

    Reply
  20. Franca Bollo

    Oh, no … not that. Anything but that. 😉

    Reply
  21. Brother Mat

    Not gonna happen there sf Laurie

    Reply
  22. carol

    I grew up in Northeast, Alabama in Little Cove. I lived there until around the 5th grade and then we moved a few miles to the closest town. (very small though). I could look out over the cotton field and see a perfect, small mountain each day. To my right was a pasture with some hard wood trees and there were always Hereford cows. I still love cotton fields, cedar trees, maple trees and mountains, even though I do not live there anymore. They turned it into a subdivision, complete with a golf course and named it Hampton Cove. (even though it had nothing to do with the Hamptons). It will always be Little Cove to me. I miss the mountains, but I do go back to see my parents who live in the same town we moved to. A funny aside: they asked my 85 year old mother to write the history of Hampton Cove and she told them, “Hampton Cove doesn’t have a history.” It made me smile.;) Now your village….that has a history!

    Reply
  23. Mike

    There’s no place like home. I love to come home after a couple weeks and be able to smell what my home smells like. Smells so good to me.

    Reply
  24. Marilyn

    There is something magical about going back to that place. I haven’t lived there since the 6th grade, yet it still feels like home when I visit. Welcome Home and Happy Travels.

    Reply
  25. pattyg

    I moved from inland to the coast. I miss the view from our backyard of the giant oak tree framed by yello rolling hills in the summertime.
    Now I want to visit Willows in the autumn.

    Reply
  26. cindy

    I grew up in a small town in Indiana and have never forgotten my roots. I was on facebook the other day and noticed some beautiful pictures of fall foliage and realized they were right across from my family home…this post reminded me of why I love this blog and why we always need to stay connected to where we are from…no matter where we roam…loved the fishmonger post too..only in france would the fishmonger be so glamorous…

    Reply
  27. Peggy

    No. For the most part I grew up in S.California, back in the day when there were still farms and orange groves. Moved north (Bay Area) as a young adult. Although I used to think I missed the beach scene there, I realized that it too has changed. I don’t think I’d ever live there again. I do visit, but avoid the LA area and the OC and head for the desert.

    Reply
  28. TEXAS FRANCOPHILE

    I forgot to post the hometown post so here goes. Was conceived in Kuwait , born in Austin, tx ( the capital) then at 6 mos. moved to Venezuela for 11 yrs. then moved to Libya for several years before returning to USA for college. Have lived in Dallas, Tx since married.
    Been trying to figure out which village you live in Corey. Apt, Arles, Bonnieux,….. I’ve been to so many.safe travels to hometown. FRANCO

    Reply
  29. Sharon Penney-Morrison

    Growing up in Kansas is very similar to Willows, except for the Ocean near you.
    Mostly flat land, wheat fields that wave for miles and miles, cows that graze slowly, walking and stopping as we drive by. Barbed wire fence that keep them from wandering into the dirt roads. Windmills that stand tall on most of the farms.
    I am still here, and this is home. I was born in 1944 and live in the big city, however, My Grandparents were farmers. We would spend a month on the farm, in Eastern Ks., during harvest. My Grandmother always wore a house dress with a clean apron on top. Always white Keds on her feet and a Barrett in her hair to keep the strands out of her face. Sometime I can get a drift of her cologne and it makes me want to hug her close. She cooked 3 meals a day on a wood stove. No running water, but always a nice cold bucket of well water by the sink,(without plumbing). Any water that spilled into the sink would go into another bucket and be thrown out the back screen door.
    My favorite activity with her was to feed the chickens, and go fetch the cows in the pasture so they could be milked by the men. I always got a kick out of her catching a chicken for dinner. She would ring his neck and he would run around the barn yard and then fall. Kind of gross when you think about it now, but hey, they were free range chickens!! She had a cellar where she kept all of her canned goods. It was outside, underground and always kind of damp, dark and creepy when we would go in. Spider webs everywhere.
    Corey, you opened a huge memory box for me. So much more to write about my life at their home. I must write these memories down for my Grandchildren. Thank you for stirring my heart.
    “Precious Memories, how they linger, how they ever flood my soul.” (Hymn)

    Reply
  30. Aimee

    I moved away from my hometown in upstate New York when I was five – 48 years ago. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. One place I barely recognize. The other hasn’t changed in over half a century. Wherever I go I carry both places in my heart, but for me, even though I may never be able to live there, England is home.

    Reply
  31. littlebadwolf

    sadly, i grew up in the suburbs, but after college and the army i moved into a building in park slope, brooklyn, which was built by the doctor who delivered me 28 years before. his office was one floor below my first apartment, and my parents laughed when they saw the building again. later i moved upstairs to an apartment with a view of almost the whole of new york harbor and midtown from over the roofs of the brownstones. park slope really is a slope down to the river and i could see ‘forever’ from 9 windows. i stayed for 26 years before moving to flat florida.

    Reply
  32. littlebadwolf

    it is warm, and i again have an apartment overlooking a river, but the view isn’t quite
    the same as having the statue of liberty, the trade center, and the empire state and chrysler
    buildings just for looking out. there isn’t much there here.

    Reply
  33. LibbyWNZ

    I hear a theme ….. the influence of grandparents….. a powerful reminder now that is the season in which I find myself. And, Corey , I am almost living where I grew up -which was on a farm – but am now in a nearby city but with a few hectares to play with. The heart always holds on to where one was loved unconditionally….

    Reply
  34. mary

    I live where I was born but when I use to live away I could hardly wait to get back home. My home town is Digby Nova Scotia . It is a beautiful town over looking the Annapolis Basin. When you are coming from Annapolis there is a place where you come over a hill that you can see the harbour and you get so excited as you know you are almost home. I also love to see our wharf with the scallop boats Here is photos of my hometown Digby 🙂
    http://youtu.be/0EHdVYIipjg
    I love home …the place where everyone knows you and your family….memories

    Reply
  35. mary

    PS Safe travels and savour every minute with family….you are so lucky to have such a wonderful Mom enjoy her, your family and Willows

    Reply
  36. danasparkle

    Tap your heels….”there’s no place like home” …. on your way Dorothy…. *

    Reply
  37. Karen in Michigan

    I was born in Oregon but have lived most of my life in Michigan. I think it’s true that where you lived when you were 12 influences your tastes–we lived in Singapore and my home today has lots of Chinese and Asian art. I lived last year in a high-rise in downtown Chicago. It taught me I am not a city girl. I love my suburban townhouse. I have grass and trees and a garden.

    Reply
  38. peggy braswell

    I do not live where I grew up but I love S. CA & N W. Fla. I am a water baby, just must live near the beach. Adore when I go home to Fla, such precious memories it holds for me. Now, Los Angeles hold memories also. Happy Trails to you! xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

    Reply
  39. Kathie B

    Oh heck yeah, Franca, it’s part of “community” — a concept Corey repeatedly depicts here so brilliantly. And blog followers not the US would get a real “insider’s” look at something they only see on the news.

    Reply

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