My Little Boy Still Loves The Old House

My son and I made a trip to Indiana over the weekend and while we were there, we visited our old house.

I lived most of my life in Michigan before moving to Indiana to work in radio.

Built a decent life there, made some great friends and bought and fixed up an old house in the country.

My son was born in Indiana but about a year after, his mom moved him and his brother to Michigan. Hence the reason I took this job, so I could be closer to the boys.

Before I moved back for this job, I would come and get my son every other week. He and I both loved those visits.

As he got a little bigger and could do more, I would make leaf piles to jump in and of course I would jump in with him. We had a lot of oak trees so we had some mighty big leaf piles in the fall.

I had an ATV and he had a little John Deere electric tractor that got passed down from his older brother. We would ride those all over the yard and just a have a big time.

We also would take rides together on the ATV and go and check the trail cams, tree stands and ride around in the country. There was a little creek we would go to and throw rocks into it.

We fished in some of the lakes, would go swimming in the area and in the winter months would build snow men and sled down the hill on the property.

It was the little guy's first real home so he has a huge attachment to it, as do I.

While on our trip this weekend we drove by some of the old places we used to go and made a trip out to see the old hunting spot and see the old house. He was really excited about seeing the old house.

We slowed down to a crawl as we passed by and looked at the trees we planted together, the hill we sled down, the yard we rode the ATV's in, the swing set he played on, the deck we used to eat on. Then something happened I didn't expect.

My son began to get choked up and said he loves that place and doesn't want to come back to Michigan and wanted to stay there. I had to tell him it is not our house anymore, there is a new family living there creating new memories like we did.

Still I thought it was sweet that he loved the place so much, well much like his old dad did.

So I suggested we go down the road to that creek we used to throw rocks in and each throw one more rock in to say goodbye and we did. He was sad and gave me the biggest hug and said, "dad, when I grow up, I want you to give me this address so I can buy this house and live here."

It really moved me that he loved that place as much as I did and would like to live in it someday. So I promised him I would.

We then talked about our new place and all the new memories we will be making and hopefully someday we both love the new house as much as we did our last house.