The tug of history

This past Thursday, I drove 2 1/2 hours north into Central PA, to an old, small, red brick church in the country.  The occasion was the funeral service and burial of my Great Aunt May, and the venue was the church where I was raised, located within view of the farm where I grew up.

The minister was new to the church and didn’t know Aunt May well, but he said he learned much during his meeting with her five children. In particular, he said he found great comfort in knowing that May would take her eternal rest in a place where many generations before her also chose to be buried. It warmed his heart, he said, to think that she would be surrounded by her ancestors.

It’s true, she’s buried next to her first husband, my Uncle Gilbert, but technically, the little cemetery in the valley holds many generations of his family, not hers.  Nevertheless, she proudly took the Beaver name when she married.  She even researched and wrote a geneaology book, outlining the descendants of George Beaver of Pfoutz Valley, PA. It was this George who, in 1878, would be the first of many to be buried in that quiet plot of land that is surrounded yet today by fields of grain.

As I exited the highway and drove through Millerstown, turned right to go up the hill, past my high school, then out into the valley, I felt as if I was being transported back in time. (The Simple Minds song on the radio helped.) I used to drive from home to school a couple of times a day and joked then that I could probably drive it with my eyes closed.  I used to know who lived in every house along the five-mile route. Now, I know many have been sold to new occupants. Things are “turning over” in the valley.

The inside of Pfoutz Valley United Methodist Church hasn’t changed much since I left home for college in 1985. The same portrait of Jesus hangs on the wall over the same gold cross on the same altar furniture.  Ginny played hymns on the same organ I used to practice on during that one year I took lessons in high school.  Food for the post-funeral luncheon was arranged on the table in the kitchen where my Sunday School class met when I was a teen.  Several of the men and women who watched me grow up were there, attending to the food so that the mourners could eat and visit with each other.

I understand what the minister was trying to say, about finding comfort in being surrounded by so much history. He remarked that many people don’t have that. I moved to the DC area almost 20 years ago and figure we’ll stay here at least until the kids are grown, if not longer. But when I think about where I would want to be buried, my mind always wanders back to the little cemetery in the valley. My dad’s there, my grandma and grandpa are there, and all those generations of ancestors, a little piece from whom I carry within my own genes.  Also, I like how the cemetery is next to the church. Around here, there are huge “memorial parks” that have no church association. Our own church doesn’t have its own cemetery.   It just makes sense to me for one to be buried next to the place where one worshipped.

But would it make sense for my survivors to cart me the whole way up there?  Not really. It’s not practical. I mean, I spent only 16 years of my life there. But they were the formative years. The ones that really leave a big impression on my soul.  And even though I’ve been gone now for more years than I lived there, I still feel the tug of history, the pull of that connection to those who went before.

Day One

They were so excited four years ago.

On Monday, they couldn’t be bothered to pose for a photo before they ran up the street to catch the bus. In fact, they made me promise I would NOT bother them next year with this ridiculous production, the photo-taking. As if it mattered.

Off they went, to catch the bus to middle school. Together. Full of the promise that the new school year holds. Brothers. (And – shhhh! – friends.)

Shifting Gears

Our vacationing neighbors asked us to take their car for a spin from time to time during their three-week absence. They’ve kept our pets alive more times than I can count, and, despite the fact that our cat continues to live, it seemed an easy way to repay their kind, if misguided, efforts.

Now, they don’t drive some flashy sports car or pimped-out SUV. It’s a basic Japanese sedan that has more miles on it than our 10-year-old Jeep. But what it does have that our vehicles don’t is a manual transmission.

 After doing them the “favor” of driving their car to the Metro parking lot and back, I can say with assurance that if I have a choice, the next car we own is going to have a stick shift. Five on the floor. Because driving a manual transmission is FUN!

I haven’t driven a stick since we “sold” my old, ailing Honda Civic CX to a friend about 6 years ago. He needed a car; we needed a case of beer, so we traded.  Despite my hiatus, the art of shifting gears came right back to me. I glided through each one as smoothly as if I’d been driving this car forever. I deftly downshifted. Nary a lurch nor jolt. No grinding gears. No stalling out. I was perfection.

As I drove, a handful of related thoughts began to congeal in a way that only a writer would understand. In no particular order:

• My first car was a 1980 Buick Skylark with 4 on the floor, and the stick shift bent back at a strange angle because of the front bench seat. My parents had ordered this car special and had to wait for it to be built and shipped.  A couple of former sports car drivers (think Jaguar, MG, ’57 Chevy), I’m sure they were craving the control a manual transmission offers after all those years of driving station wagons and huge family sedans.
• I knew I had mastered the art of driving a stick shift when I had to stop on an incline, facing up, at a two-way stop sign. I looked both ways, then proceeded across the road with the efficiency required of that limited visibility intersection, without kicking up so much as a single pebble.
• In high school, I dated a guy whose dad had given him a brand-new Camaro Z-28 for his 16th birthday. With T-tops. I was the only girl he ever let drive it. Or at least that’s what he told me.
• I was always fascinated by my dad’s 10-wheeler farm truck. It had 15 gears! So, every five gears, he had to shift twice (one stick from low to medium, the other from 5th to first to start all over).  
• My sons still pretend to drive fast sports cars even as we lumber along in our giant Suburban. In their minds, they hear the whine of high RPMs as they race through the gears.
• Do kids nowadays even know how to drive a stick? Meaning in real life, not in a video game? How many people do you know today who drive a manual transmission? I think more people should, because if they did, we would all be forced to engage in - to concentrate on – the act of driving, thereby precluding cell phone conversations and texting behind the wheel. 

Just sayin’.