by Judy Zabriskie

Created on: November 07, 2011

Twenty five years ago I married and left my home town, thinking I would never return.  My memories were bittersweet as my parents decided to move townships when I was in the middle of 9th grade and I never felt comfortable in my "new" environment. I never really fit in as I moved from a relatively blue collar mixed neighborhood to an upper class white collar, Jewish neighborhood and school.  I didn't have the "right" clothing; I had no idea about this culture although the physical move was only about 15 miles away from where I had spent my youth.  I left my friends, a boyfriend and a school where I was fairly popular and where I felt accepted and in my element, so to speak.  I arrived in my new home friendless, lonely and so far out of the culture I may as well have moved a continent away.  As we all know people, especially teenage girls, can be cruel and cruel they were.  I was virtually ostracized with the exception of a few girls who befriended me until others accepted them into their group and then poof I was gone and alone again. I ate lunch alone, sat on the bus alone and pretty much did everything alone.  This seemed to please my mother as she had a constant companion and driver (I received my license while living in my new home.)  As a back story - we moved as my sister, who is 6 years my junior, was felt to be the "star" of our family and it was felt that she should grow up among affluence and culture and I was already lost to my former environment so pretty much dismissed by my family save for being my mother's stand in husband at family events (my parents were NOT close and in a loveless marriage) and being the whipping post for my sister and her friends, of whom she made many as she had all the tools necessary to survive this new environment.

Years passed and I went off to college and married, moving to another state to start a new life.  We lived in my new state for 3 years where I finished graduate school, had a son and inherited the proverbial outlaws.  After several job changes my husband took a job in yet another state, this time closer to my home state.  This job was to have been temporary but temporary became 21 years.  My son is now a senior at a state school in our 21 year temporary state and my husband has changed jobs yet again, this time bringing me home to my birth state and quite close to where I grew up.  Much water has passed under the bridge, but some memories stay

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>