Home

What is home? Seems like a simple enough question. Is it where you own your home? Where you grew up? Where you started life?

I recently argued this point with my brother when he asked me if I was coming home for my niece’s graduation.

“Yes”, I replied “but not home." “Home is where I live- Groton, Connecticitut.”

“No”, he argued” we grew up in New York and that area is our home."

Actually, we lived in Connecticut until I was nine and then moved to New York where we completed high school and I moved on.

When I was old enough I came back to the area that I enjoyed as a child. New England is like no other part of the country. It has a different feel and smell.

After living in the Adirondacks for more than a decade, southeastern Connecticut is a welcome retreat from an area where you need to know what a 30-30-30 rule is. (Let’s just say it is cold up there)

There is a reason the area we live in is called New England. The names of the towns and cities, the architecture, and lately the endless rain are reminiscent of the mother land. (Although, I will never in my life understand why people pronounce the river that runs through New London completely different to the river that runs through London, England) That aside, there are many cues taken from our forefathers home lands. Seaside villages like Fowey could easily be mistaken for Cape Cod or Maine with its cliffs of pink thrift running down to the sea. Similar too, are the village greens with simple landscaping, stone walls and picturesque homes to frame them out.

The Adirondacks have a different feel to them. Architecturally, Victorian style homes dominate most towns and log cabin, A- frame or Chalets are more in style in rural areas. The language of the region is “North Country” this or “Adirondack “that. Playing to its Snow Belt locale, you will find more ski shops than bike or surf shops.

The marinas are all about power and fishing boats for the lake areas. Gone are the Magnolias, Weeping Cherries and Mountain laurels that take advantage of the warmer coastal winters. The one thing that my beloved New England is missing out on is autumn. Autumn in the Adirondacks is a symphony of hues orchestrated in a way that has to be seen to appreciate. It is a stunning pallet of muted colors contrasted strikingly against green grass and grey skies. The crisp, stillness of the air is equally exhilarating. However, it is this idyllic season that belies the sense of winter approaching at any moment with brutal fury.

So as I return home from my niece’s graduation and could once again smell salt in the air, follow rambling stone walls and catch the vistas that lead out towards Long Island sound, I am reminded of why I call this area home. Despite , the tourist swell that helps feed this region and the congestion on I-95, It is a lovely area to live in. The patchwork of coastal and inland communities that make up New England are also the story of our nation in its infancy. Let us not take that much for granted.