Kim aka Gomi Girl talks about visiting her hometown – Peoria:
Peoria has changed and grown so much in just the past 2 years it’s totally not the city I left! It’s growing into a cultural center, becoming very touristy and pretty with just enough exploitation of the Riverfront. I really had a desire to return and live in that city! Economic growth, killer schools. Same cost of living as Jax, basically, with more growth potential.
After all the lean years, a little recovery was overdue. Next Kim mentions that:
EVERYONE stared at me. I mean EVERYONE! People didn’t even HIDE their confusion or rudeness! They just STARED! I really was creeped out by it! I just wanted to turn to people and say “WHAT????”
When I took my beautiful brown-skinned wife to Peoria a few years back for a class reunion, as a couple we got the same treatment to some extent. No negative comments, hostility or open expressions of hatred, just some folks who couldn’t seem to control their own eyeballs. But then, we sometimes experience that same brand of nonsense in the District, while largely escaping such unnecessary experiences in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Fairfax County. Peoria is no different in that respect, and a lot better than some places. The stare factor is annoying and unfortunately more common than it should be, but still a sign of progress as things have been far worse in the past. We owe Mildred and Richard Loving a debt of gratitude. Time and tide will change the rest.
As Thomas Wolfe wrote, “you can’t go home again.” Well, that’s not entirely true. You can go home, but it won’t be the same. You have been altered by experience and time, as have the people and places you left behind. Not necessarily better or worse – just changed. For all its familiarity and comforts, home is not the same. And neither are you.