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Published: April 11th 2018
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Driving Home
Driving home from Mount Pleasant with two sleepy babies in the backseat! My husband and I both come from the same very small town in the middle of the Triad region of North Carolina. Yet, while I say that we are both from there, the reality is that I have lived here my entire life but he is the son of a Methodist minister. It’s the norm in that specific denomination that the minister moves to another church every four years or so. As such, my husband grew up in multiple places, all of them in the central part of our state. He spent many of his formative years, from around the ages of 8 to 12, in a little town called Mount Pleasant, NC. The town is about two hours from where we live now, but for the most part we haven’t been back to visit. The church parsonage where he lived with his family is now inhabited by another minister and his own family, so there’s not exactly a “homeplace” to come home to. Still, he speaks often about several hotspots that he loved to visit when he was younger, so we thought it would be sweet to bring our kids back there to reminisce.
Seeing the Sights and Recreating the Memories
We started the day at a local park and playground. It wasn’t a place that my husband went to as a child, but we had two toddlers who needed to stretch their legs, so it was a must-do. I looked one up on my phone and we discovered one at the nearby Buffalo Creek Preserve. It was a good way to start the day and get the kids hungry for what came next -- dessert first! From there, we went to the Deluxe Ice Cream Factory. Deluxe is an ice cream brand that’s well-known throughout the southeast, and I never knew that it was made in my husband’s old stomping grounds! We split the biggest banana split they had and it was such a treat. The kids had never heard of one before and were so delighted by all of the toppings. I’d definitely recommend a pit-stop there if you’re ever in the region!
Next, we went to eat a late lunch at nearby Lotus Restaurant. This is the Chinese restaurant where my husband and his family went to eat Sunday lunch every single week. The same, sweet couple who ran it back in the 1980s were still there to greet us today! We pulled up a picture of my in-laws on our phone and they broke out into a huge grin. I’m not sure if they truly recognized them, but they sure acted like they did! After a fantastic meal of chicken lo mein, wonton soup and orange sesame chicken, we were ready to hit the road again. Our last two stops were to see the old Methodist church and the quick-stop, community store beside of it. The store is attached to a gas station but it’s anything from run-down. Instead, it’s more of a general store full of t-shirts supporting the local high school, delicious Cheerwine slushies, and any sort of random hardware oddity you could possibly imagine. We did a once-through in the parking lot of the church and my husband pointed out a few important places like the fellowship hall and the sanctuary.
Once we got to the store, even though we were stuffed, we made room for a slushie. We also bought a wheelbarrow because we needed one for back home and the prices there were better than we’d seen anywhere else. From there, we headed back home. The kids fell asleep in the car, of course, but it gave my husband and I a great chance to have an uninterrupted conversation for a few hours. This trip was partially to look back and reflect, but it was also one last hoorah before the real world kicks in a little more. I recently left my position as a grant writer to pursue an advanced degree and my husband is about to start a new job as an account executive at a digital marketing agency. He’ll be working on the company’s SMS text-based messaging platform (similar to the one
Betwext operates) and helping grow the brand community a little more.
For that day, though, we were still relatively stress-free and soaking up every minute with our sweet family. Times have changed since my husband graced that little town. He’s gotten older and everything around him has shifted just a little. I’m just glad it moved him in my direction, so we could keep making special memories just like this.
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