Is it the place you were born? The place you grew up or spent the majority of your childhood in? Is it the place you've lived in the longest? Is it your place of current residence?
One of my friends jokingly told me that true Albanyites are born in Albany Regional Hospital, so therefore, I am not a true Albanyite because I was born in Perth, and didn't move to the great south until I was five. But I will always consider Albany to be my hometown. It was where I grew up and spent my formative years. I lived there from June 1988 until February 2001 in six different houses. My closest friends hail from there, I went to school there and I have some precious memories from there. Not to mention it is such a beautiful place.
I went through my 'Albany is a hole' stage in my early twenties when I'd already left and used to come home for holidays. Unfortunately, it does have small town mentality, despite being a city of 30,000, and there are some annoying individuals and families, but doesn't every place have that?
Sometimes I want to go back, and sometimes I think it would be an unwise idea since I've now moved on and can't relive the past. But, wherever I am, I will always consider it my hometown.
Princess Royal Harbour. 4th October 2009
The new entertainment centre under construction.
Beautiful Frenchman Bay.
A place with so many good memories.
4 comments:
Flip...
you are making me feel all sentimental!
Albany was where I first started in my faith journey, was baptised at Emu Point, had my first real relationship, made some life long friends....
drove my car too fast, lost my licence...
worked at Kailis fish factory,
Venice Pizza Parlour, and various garages...
It was also where I became inspired to be a pastor, through the ministry of Mark Randall at Albany C of C
So we must have lived in Albany at the same time then! I'm guessing you would have been in your late teens? Crazy small world!
To me it´s also the place I grew up in, not where I was born.
Usually you´re there for just a very short time and in hospital only, huh, and get "shaped" in the following years, no?
I could imagine, though, that if I stay long enough here in the town I already call "home", I might to refer to it as hometown someday. Not forgetting my roots, but having moved on.
Returning to my childhood-town? Not for more than a visit!
yes...19 years old...lived there for 12 months...1988-1989
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