The Buzz: There’s no place like home

By Marlene Bohr

Ever heard the expression we can’t see the forest for the trees?
It is a common thing when we are growing up to say we can’t wait until we are able to leave our hometown and venture on to other bigger and better places to live. It’s always fun to go back where we grew up see relatives and old friends.
I made such a trip the first week in November. Back to Northern Illinois I went and thoroughly enjoyed the brilliance of the trees changing colors. The reds and yellows were amazing, and some trees just were so awesome it could take your breath away.
When I was driving to work this morning, the trees along Highway 11 were beautiful in their own right. Yes, they are a different kind, but some have leaves that attract one’s attention with the beauty they offer in the changing season.
It is always great to go back and attend church where I grew up and see old friends there. I was amazed one lady was still there and still attending church. She is 96. She informed me that she still lives in her own home without help.  She has macular degeneration and when I sat down in the pew beside her, she could not see me. I told her who I was and she was happy to see me. It is strange, when going back home, all the friends I meet refer to women with their maiden names. It is how we identify who is who.
Stonewall Café is one of my favorite haunts while I am back home visiting. It is like its name, built downstairs in a cellar of one of the buildings in the two-block main street of town. It actually does have stone walls.  In a second room off the main dining area, ladies are busy a couple mornings a week doing hand quilting.  When I visit this time of year, the room is brilliant with the colors of our flag. Red, white and blue colors are mixed into quilt after quilt. Different designs are used.  
For the past several years, these ladies gather on a mission and the quilts are formed painstakingly with stitch after stitch. Since they are handmade, the quilts are tied. All these quilts, I think there were 70 of them, are sent overseas to those serving in the military. I can imagine the joy with which they are received. We see the sands of Iraq and Pakistan and one of those quilts would be so bright and colorful. These ladies have a fabulous way of thanking the troops for their service and letting them know they are thought about.
The ladies at church had their yearly bazaar and during church service reported on their sales. They really put a lot of effort in their crafts, as do the ladies of churches in our area. Fellowship after church is a great way to play catch up on what all of us are doing in our lives.
My mom, having lived all her life in Pecatonica, Ill. except when she was in college, was the town historian. I was shown pictures of houses and asked “whose” house it was. I didn’t have a clue but suggested it was on one corner of town. I’m not sure I was right. My mom would have known, but regrettably I did not.
It turned cold while I was there, but not the damp cold we have here. It seems like I brought some of the cold weather back with me, as last night for the first time, I decided it would be a good idea to put the furnace on. It’s a great treat to go back home and visit, but also a great treat to be back home and fixing stories and news for The Steel Country Bee.