Things that make me think of home...

And, by home here, I mean the home I grew up in, Alabama. Thanks, Batoul, for putting this in my mind. For those of you who have lived in one place all of your lives, you may find it a bit hard to relate. For a frame of reference, I grew up in 2 cities in AL, then moved to a 3rd for college. After graduating college, El 3atal and I moved to 4 different states and in the final state two different cities. I've traveled a good bit outside the US. And, I've found that there are just those things that bring home visibly, forcefully, and often reminiscently to mind. So, I thought I'd blog about them. Let' see how many I've got...

1. John Denver's music. It's a bit ironic since he doesn't sing about Alabama at all, but... there it is. His a little bit folksy, a little bit country, kickin' sound makes me think of home. In particular, Country Roads (radio reminds me of my home far away, driving down the road I get the feelin' that I shoulda been home yesterday). Once in Sweden after a long hard, very foreign feeling trip, some Swedes on a train started singing Rocky Mountain High. talk about tearing up...
2. The smell of honeysuckle. You find it alot here in Jordan, but it takes me back to summer evenings spent chasing fireflies (lightning bugs for those who call them that) in the drippy summer heat. Hope the beans get to experience this one day.
3. Humidity so heavy that it presses on your chest like a brick. You don't actually get this much outside of the Deep South (and I've never felt it as strongly outside of my hometown, which sits in a bowl between the coast and the mountains).
4. Chocolate chip cookies baking. They make me think of younger years sitting in the kitchen, grabbing them when they were too hot and burned the roof of my mouth.
5. The strong smell of burning food. Okay, so this talks a bit too much about my mom's kitchen timer (known in other homes as a smoke detector, teehee).
6. Trees, trees, and trees. Whenever I see a forest of truly lovely trees, the kind that grow close together keeping out all grass and ground cover, I think of home. Alabama is a very green state, year round. And the woods and forests marked my childhood.
7. The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. Any song form either of these two takes me back to sitting in the kitchen when I was VERY young (like 4 or 5). My Mom was coking or doing dishes and we would sing along to he sounds of Julie Andrews. The Beans are just getting into these now.
8. Turkey dinner cooking. Thanksgiving, home, family, you know. It's a great thing to cook here in my house, because it reminds me of childhood times with all of my cousins around and about.
9. Sweet Home Alabama by LynardSkynard. I LOVE that song. And, ironically, also written by a band not FROM Alabama.
10. The smell of sand and salt water. That takes me back to vacations on the beach (only 4 hours from home). Days spent in Fort Walton or Panama City before they became glitzy kinds of places. Back when it was just us locals coming out for a little sand, sea, and fun. We used the little showers on the beach and sat tired, uncomfortable, and sandy all the way home. (Don't let me forget hopping out of the car to race around it like mad-people when you hit Florala!).

I hope you enjoyed my list. And, feel free to tag yourself and share with us what "takes you home".

Happy memories!