I was born in a Smalltown.....

I seem to have sparked a bit of controversy (in my own household at least) with my answer to the hometown question accompanying the new facebook profile update. Blacksburg, VA has been my answer to that question for close to 35 years....though, admittedly, I have had reason to question the validity of this response for quite some time.

There is no doubt that I was born in a hospital in Asheville, NC (though the family lived in a smaller nearby town at the time)....that is my birth town....no disputing that but I don't recall having ever been there so it cannot carry over to hometown as well.

Having done some quick internet research, a hometown is supposed to be where one grew up or from where one's family originates. Well, as most of you know, the "grew up" thing hasn't happened yet so we might have to re-visit this topic again somewhere down the line should that ever happen.

Exploring my family history is too damn confusing....would make a bigger mess of things than what I'm already dealing with.

I spent most of 2nd grade through 5th in Blacksburg, VA.....that's where I first played little league baseball, won my first free chicken dinner, broke my first bones, took my first college course, skimmed my first playboy magazine, first (and last) time I spit tobacco in the presence of the governor and his wife (who happened to be Elizabeth Taylor)....you know....all the important stuff....it just always rings of hometown anytime I think of it. The people I've known the longest on FB are from here....and I still remember my home phone number from these days too.

I cannot go without mentioning China Spring, TX.....those were two awesome years during my junior high days. Met some really cool people there...some of whom I'm still in contact with and plan to be for the rest of my life.....made one of my best friends here and that's definitely the longest running, with the least amount of commercial interruption, friendships I've had. Looking back, the CS days were the last of the carefree days.....of course, I didn't realize it at the time...no one ever does.....so for that alone, China Spring always has a bit of magical resonance for me but unfortunately.....not home.

Then came the other Spring.....the Big Spring! I first visited this place the summer of 1981....we all stayed at the holiday inn across from college park shopping center for about a week while my father was interviewing at the old Cameo Homes. There wasn't much to do so I stayed in the room a lot and watched Willie Nelson's "Honeysuckle Rose" movie about four times a day and memorized the dialogue word for word. Little did I know it at the time but after countless viewings of that movie and having already realized there wasn't much going on in this town, I was fully prepared to be a citizen of Big Spring.

Won't go into the next 29 years too much......though I'm sure some of those tales will make an appearance on this blog eventually.......just suffice it to say that over the course of my 42 years, the overwhelming majority of my time has been spent in Big Spring, TX.

My mother still lives there, the majority of my friends are there or are from there, my wife was born there......maybe it's time I start to declare Big Spring my hometown.

So do I have to file some paperwork, have some grand ceremony, or what?

I am somewhat fearful of people and places from my past feeling left out.....just as I am also fearful of not receiving the true, full blessing of any and all true Big Spring-ers....but I do already have the approval of the most important true Big Spring native in my life......in fact, she seems offended that I don't also call BS home.

I'm gonna do it.....it's gonna feel strange....probably sound weird for a while....might have to change my whole mindset

Big Spring, huh? Yeah....that's probably where they'll bury me.

feel free to voice your displeasure to your local elected officials