Blog 3302 – 11.16.2024
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Home they say is where the heart is and though some may carry their hearts on their sleeves I carry mine right inside my chest. Therefore, I am always at home wherever I am. My dad was a jokester and one of his favorite lines when we had guests at our table was to say, “If you are not at home you ought to be.” The double entendre was a favorite of dad’s. He loved leaving people not knowing what to think – Was he joking? – Was he serious? Yes and Yes!
My mom had a difficult time seeing the romance in my father, but he was a romantic at heart and loved her more than I think she ever knew. When she asked him why he wanted to marry her he said because he wanted a home and it looked like she needed one too. The first time he asked she told him no in no uncertain terms. But after she and her sister Katherine had exhausted their welcome with all their aunts in Chattanooga the second time around she looked up my dad and asked him if his offer of marriage was still open. He said yes to which she added what would have been a deal breaker to most men, she said, “Katherine comes too.” Dad said, “That will be fine.” He had taken care of his brothers and sisters till they were all old enough to be out on there on. Dad knew the importance of family and of home.
My son Jay reminds me of my dad. When he was little he was a little Jake, one of my dad’s many nicknames. Chattanooga, was the place of dad’s birth, and no matter how far he roamed, as far as Crater Lake, Oregon with the CCC Camps, Midway Island during WW2 with the Navy, and all over the country hauling freight as a Teamster truck driver, dad always came home to Chattanooga and his family. He died and was buried in Chattanooga in 1997.
My son was born in Houston, Texas and though he has traveled a bit on vacations and with his work. Houston is home to him. With a wife and little girl of his own they have a big house on an acre and a third in Kingwood, a Houston suburb. He also has a sixty acre piece of property just south of Bon Wier, Texas. I recently purchased fifteen and a half acres adjoining his property where I plan to install electric, water, and sewer. I have already secured an RV Camper to park on that property with plans to build something larger and more permanent in the future. A home away from home where I can see my son, his wife, his daughter and perhaps other children fishing in Papa White’s pond the way we did at Grandpa Stokes pond when Jay was a boy. That place my wife Linda Lee Stokes always called home.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
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