Coming Home

Down the Hill and Across the Road

Coming Home

I have so many memories of coming home! As a small child I felt safe at home. That was where my Mom and Dad and brothers and sisters were. A home is more than a building where people live. Home is a place of safety, security, love, acceptance, belonging, and comfort. Our family did not travel on vacations or go long distances from our home. As far as I remember I was never out of the area I was born in until I was in eighth grade, and traveled on a school bus with other eighth grade students in Lawrence County to Jefferson City our State Capital. I was so excited going on that long trip to see the State Capital building and the State Penitentiary. We took our own lunch (no fast food places in those days). I remember I had a potted meat sandwich and three oatmeal cookies. Potted meat was a real treat, something we didn’t eat at home. All the things that I did and what I saw that day were so exciting.  However, the best part of the whole trip was coming home.

When I started school it was an enjoyable thing. I always liked school. Each day after school I remember coming home where my Mom was. It seemed when I got to the end of the drive I was terribly hungry. I knew my Mom was waiting for her children to get home. She always had something for us to eat. I can hear her now “don’t eat too much and ruin your supper”. Coming home was good.

When I had been in the first grade for about two months, I got very sick. My parents thought I had eaten too many green apples. As my condition got worse and worse they decided I better go see the doctor. Doctor Cowen was a very nice and gentle man. I remember him talking to my Dad after he had examined me and saying “your boy is very sick Clarence his appendix has burst, we have to do something right away or he won’t make it”. They say one cannot recall pain and I suppose one cannot recall fear also, but I remember I was very scared. The next thing I remember was the nurse put a mask over my face and said “Jimmy can you count to one hundred for me?” I began counting I remember only counting ten and that was it. When I woke-up I was in a hospital bed with a lot of people standing around. That hospital bed is where I stayed for the next 27 days. In those 27 days I had a lot of ups and downs and a lot of uncertainties. But the time came when the nurse came into my room and said “little buddy you’re going home”.

I was carried out of the hospital and placed gently in the back seat of our car. As we drove home in that old ’34 Dodge car I felt every bump like someone had smacked me with a board. I was really hurting, but it was okay because I was coming home. I couldn’t see where we were because I was lying down I could feel when the dodge turned every corner. We turned a corner and drove a short distance, Dad turned the engine off and looked over the back of the front seat and said “you’re home Jim”. I had a long recovery ahead but I was home, which was the best place to recover.

When I became seventeen years old I joined the Army. I did well in the Army. I was called a hillbilly partly because I was from the Missouri Ozarks and partly because of the way I talked. I got along with everyone well and basically enjoyed my duty. Well, I can’t say I had a great time the seventeen months I spent in Korea. However, I knew my time there was for a short while and when it was over I would be coming home. I came back to the States on a troop ship which docked at Seattle Washington. When we got off the ship some of the guys knelt down and kissed the ground. Washington is a nice State but for me it wasn’t home. After spending two weeks at Fort Lewis and getting everything checked out I received my Discharge. Now I was going home! I flew from Seattle Washington to Kansas City Missouri. In Kansas City I was not able get a flight to Springfield until the next day. So, I caught a cab to the Greyhound Bus Depot. The cab driver said “where are you going”? I said, “The Bus Depot”, he said, “and from there”? I said, “I am going home”, He said, “and where is home”?  I told him Aurora Missouri. He asked me where had I been I told him I just coming home from seventeen months in Korea. He said, “I bet you’ll be glad to get home”. I said, “Yes sir I sure will”. Luckily I was able to get a bus going to Aurora that was leaving in 20 minutes. They said it was an express which made fewer stops than the regular bus. I said, that would be good, I don’t know how often the regular bus stopped but the express I was on stopped about fifteen times between Kansas City and Aurora.  When we arrived in Aurora and the bus pulled up to the curb at The Bank Hotel, my bus ride was over. With duffle bag over my shoulder and my other bag in my hand I stood looking around and thought, since my home is three miles from town it’s too far to walk to my home. Junior McKinley’s cab stand was just across the street. I walked over to the cab stand, and said, I need a ride to my home. So, off we went to my home. When we got there I asked how much do I owe?  He said this time you don’t owe me anything next time it will cost you. I was home!

My home changed when Shirley and I got married. During our married years we have lived in many different places and many different houses. Our home has always been where Shirley the girls and I lived. As I said earlier a house is not a home it’s just where you live eat and sleep. A home is something that is made up of the love and relationship of the people living at that location.

I won’t be too long now and my soul shall depart and leave this old body here to rot. When I pass over into glory I’m sure I will hear a kind comforting voice say JIM YOU’RE HOME!

Christ told His disciples “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God believe also in me. In my Fathers house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”—John 14: 1&2