More Words for Wednesday - Homeplace - definition?

This post is really inspired by the comments on my previous post - Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - our old farm homes, earlier today. Check them out.

Of the four parents that lived in those two houses, only one lived more than a week away from an eight mile radius until very late in life. In contrast, as suggested by the comments, when my wife, Nancy, and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last summer, one of the prominent displays our daughters prepared, with our help, was a map, and photos, of the 15 homes in 12 states where we lived during those 50 years... I have them in my hands, at the moment...

 What a striking difference, in one generation. Actually, the prior generation, our grandparents, spent their entire adult lives in basically the same community, as well. How different their perspectives on life from ours!

Still, there is something very strong about a "Homeplace." My dad always used that term to refer to the family farm on which he was born and raised (in the same neighborhood, of course!) Currently, I'm putting the final edits to rest on a fiction book titled "Back to the Homeplace" - it is not autobiographical by any means, but the title comes from my dad's reference. As I reflect on what caused me to start writing this story, 22 years ago (life got in the way of finishing it...), many elements of our own story can certainly be seen in the manuscript, if you know what to look for.

By the way, the discussion - I hope this continues it - in the comments on the "our old farm homes" post is a great example of how discussions can be carried out by interested persons on blogs. Someone asked me, a couple of weeks ago, why their blog posts did not generate more discussions... my reply was two fold, 1) you have to write something of interest, even compelling, and 2) you have to make comments on other folks' posts. It does work. Thanks for your participation!!

Families are Forever!  ;-)