Goodbye, Charlottesville

Posted on July 24th, 2004 by hanfaith.
Categories: Deep Thoughts, General.

This weekend, my parents left Charlottesville. As they left, a part of us left Charlottesville too. We may live in Maine, but they were our last ties to that town. As long as they were there, we still had an excuse to go back and visit - to go see all our old friends and old haunts. But now… it’s not likely that we’ll cross paths with anyone in C’ville for quite a while, if ever.

My family has wandered quite a bit - especially when I was in upper elementary and middle school. When I turned 14, we finally settled down for a few years and I went to school in C’ville. I actually attended one school for two years - amazing, when you consider that I’ve been to 10 different schools since 6th grade including college. I met my best friend in high school at a picnic in C’ville. I attended and grew with a church through its early stages in C’ville. After leaving C’ville for a year to go to college in Missouri, I brought my future husband back to meet the family and the town. Our first year of marriage was in a tiny apartment in C’ville. Our apartment was up above a garage in a little back alley in the town. I never quite felt safe there - but hey, it was a great year. My first teaching jobs were in Charlottesville - first as a substitue and then as an aid. And of course, the infamous Bodo’s where poor Philip suffered for two and a half years as a baker at the early hour of 4:00 am.

Charlottesville has changed since we’ve left. I’ve heard through the grapevine that the traffic is steadily getting worse. I’ve heard they might get a Target. Hopefully some of our favorite places won’t change too much. We used to walk down to the downtown mall on hot summer nights from our apartment (it was about two blocks away) and get icecream at Chaps - their mint chocolate chip was the absolute best I’ve ever had.

Perhaps what we miss about Charlottesville is the relationships and the relationships that could have been. While we were there as a married couple, we were pretty shy and stayed in our little “group” of people that we knew. We wish now that we had moved about a bit more and hung out with more people our age. Right before we left C’ville a number of twenty-something couples started coming to our church - wish we could’ve spent more time with them. Especially now when there are no other couples in our area who are our age.

Things we don’t miss: the traffic, 29 on a busy day when all you wanted was to get to Walmart without it taking half an hour, and the weather. The weather up here is so much more pleasant (ok, 40 below in the winter isn’t that pleasant - but I’d rather have that than 100+ with humidity in the summer) - and it’s a great place for Éva’s skin with all of her allergies.

So now the ties have been cut. It feels like, if we ever had to leave Maine now, we would have nowhere to go. There’s not a “hometown” place anymore. And it’s partly sad. But we’re also very excited for my parents and their new opportunities at Westminster.

9 comments.

The LSW (Hannah's Mom)

Comment on July 25th, 2004.

There will be a support group meeting for any Charlottesville Ex-Patriots starting up next week. First meeting will be on Tuesday morning in Greenville, ME….early. See you then!

Roger

Comment on July 26th, 2004.

Plus, Charlottesville can always be your “hometown”, even if your parents no longer live there.

We have a Target, though, so you may want to stick around. :)

Hannah

Comment on July 26th, 2004.

I guess I would never consider C’ville really my hometown in the sense of spending many years there. Maybe Cortland, NY would be closer to that. I guess what I really meant was that there was no longer a family “home” to go home to there.

And I’ve only checked out the new Target once so far - it didn’t have the greatest deals then, but maybe on my next trip to Bangor it will yield greater rewards!

Eric

Comment on July 26th, 2004.

I live in Bangor, and haven’t been to Target yet. :twisted:

Roger

Comment on July 27th, 2004.

I kinda like Target, though I can’t explain why. I haven’t even been through the whole store yet. Krissy’s dad changed from strict K*Mart to Target. That’s saying something itself.

Katey

Comment on July 27th, 2004.

Philip worked at Bodo’s?!? That’s awesome! My mom used to take me to Bodo’s while my brothers were at school (and I was in half-day preschool) and I’d have a chocolate chip bagel with chocolate chip cream cheese. Every time. Good times, good times.

Hannah

Comment on July 27th, 2004.

My personal fav bagel sandwich, was a feta cheese with a slice of tomato and lettuce on a plain. Ummm…

The food was pretty good - but the hours and the work was really hard on Philip. He was always tired and red-eyed and I think it was somewhat of a relief to get away from there.

Adonice D'Atre

Comment on July 27th, 2004.

Hannah, Your mom gave me your blog. It is great to hear a little about your life. You know you are always welcome back here. You can stay with us anytime. Funny to talk about Bodo’s, David said in the car when we passed it today, “When are they going to knock down that bagel store?” When I asked him why he would ask that, he said, “Because it is putting out all kinds of pollution!” It is so funny what kids say. I am sure Eva is adorable. Carey would enjoy playing with her. I am excited about your new one! God bless you!

the Dad

Comment on July 29th, 2004.

What a great post, Hannah. It didn’t really occur to me that our leaving C’ville is also closing a chapter on your lives as well. For goodness sake, both of our girls were married while there, Sarah on the front lawn of our house.

We’ll also miss the great (cheap!) food at Bodos, but along with you will not miss how it almost killed Philip. Mom and I will never forget the time that he set out at 3:30 a.m. walking through a blizzard to get there because he was the only baker. After your first months in Maine, we could actually see a physical change (for the better) in Philip.

And since we’ve got a Target subtopic going…we have a Target just blocks from our new apartment in Philly. A two story Target!! It has this escalator with a separate little escalator for your shopping cart. It looks like an amusement ride for carts. “Your shopping cart must be at least this tall to go on this ride.”

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