So many changes made in just 25 years (07/05/06)

Milestones creep up on you.

This spring has been full of them.

This June was my 40th high school reunion, and a day or two later we celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary.

That provided plenty of raw material for rumination.

Then, over the July 4th holiday, we were hit with two more.

The obvious one was Sally's 20th birthday. It was 1986 when she was born, right in the middle of the Jay County sesquicentennial celebration and — simultaneously — the centennial of the Statue of Liberty.

My recollection is that she was born just about the time the Elvis impersonators arrived at Ellis Island.

The less-than-obvious milestone was that we took possession of our current house 25 years ago on the 4th of July weekend.

Once upon a time, that wouldn't be a very big deal.

But, given the mobility of Americans today, it's a big deal indeed.

It used to be that the average American homeowner stayed put for seven years. My guess is that the average is far lower today.

The notion of putting down roots for 25 years may be downright un-American these days, when weighed against the trends.

So, I wondered Sunday night while cooking some fish on the grill, what have we done with this place in 25 years?

I stood on a spot that used to be reserved for burning the trash, back in the day when trash was burned. Today, we haul both trash and recyclables to the curb.

Inside, over the past quarter of a century, we've removed wallpaper, put up wallpaper, painted, re-painted, knocked out walls, built walls, re-wired, re-plumbed, re-carpeted, removed old cabinets, installed new cabinets, replaced appliances, and dreamed a hundred other projects. That's the way it goes with old houses. You start with the moment. You build upon it. And the next thing you know, 25 years have passed and you're still not done.

Worse that that. You're still in the planning stages.[[In-content Ad]]