USA: Home -- it's a beautiful place

. PITTSBURGH, PA / The Daily Courier / January 27, 2009 By Minna Jacobs You are never too old or too young to occasionally feel adventurous but I can testify that it happens more often when you are young. The night I am about to recall from the distant past, was frosty, the moon was riding high in the sky, trees were silhouetted against the almost cloudless heavens while buildings and low bushes huddled together in the cold shadows of darkness. It was a winter evening, the kind that makes you feel restless, and I was still young enough to be a bit daring -- or whatever you want to call it -- so I thought it was a perfect time for a drive into the mountain area. Because my equally young husband agreed to almost anything I asked, we were soon on the road. The farther we traveled, the more signs of an earlier light snowfall showed in the white dusting covering the unprotected grass of field and lawn. In homes all along the road windows were aglow with beckoning lights. That's when my imagination began putting people in those homes and I remember trying to imagine what they were like, what was happening in their lives behind those sparkling glass panes. Were they happy being who they were? All sorts of scenarios ran through my mind. Were there little ones playing on the floor or was there, perhaps, a woman who was happily awaiting the arrival of a baby? Behind one of those rectangles of light a family could be thinking of calling it quits; some could be eating a late evening meal together or even having their daily family devotions. A minister could be busy preparing a Sunday sermon in a quiet study. Upstairs, a mother could be tucking a small child into a comfortable bed beside a cuddly teddy bear. Or, who knows, behind a locked bedroom door a troubled teen could be trying to sort out some problems. Life can be confusing at times, you know. Moving along, I saw so many neat little homes -- each person abiding in them with a life to live, no two alike in their thoughts and ideals but all striving for the best. In a neat, not-so-new home, I could picture an elderly person sitting alone, remembering a time when "lonesome" was just a word in a dictionary. Or perhaps there was a young man quietly dreaming his dreams of the future -- or someone could be re-living the days of a swiftly-flown youth. Perhaps the darkened house was no longer occupied, left to stand alone as the passing of time took its toll. I hoped not. Home! It's a beautiful, comforting word and that was where Lewis and I needed to be. Voicing that to my relieved husband who had probably heard enough of my imaginings -- we were soon there, where we turned on the lights -- and the TV. We had both had enough of real-life for one evening. I miss those spontaneous drives but most of all, I miss the driver. © 2009 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co