A place called “home”

 Christmas in my hometown, 9x12" oil on panel

Ask someone who grew up in the military where he was born, and chances are that place differs from his hometown. Charles City, Iowa holds little significance to me other than, according to my birth certificate, its being the place where I was born. Goldsboro, North Carolina, on the other hand, holds great significance to me. It’s where I went to junior and senior high school, where I first fell in love, started a dreadful 30+ year habit of smoking cigarettes, reigned in 1967-68 as (heaven forbid) “Miss Goldsboro”, but most importantly, where my parents decided to retire, thus becoming “home” for my parents, my brother and me. Here’s a painting that includes the new Paramount Theatre, rebuilt after the old one was destroyed by fire in the wee morning hours of 2005.