Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for April 09, 2012

Hi everyone again! Thanks for the nice “welcome back”s! :-) I missed checking comics every day and “talking” with everyone.My break was pretty busy, with a mix of being a tourist and doing family things. My kids and I took some trips to DC to the museums, which they really loved (especially Metro… they’re becoming quite the city kids). We went to the American History, Natural History and Air & Space museums. To my surprise, they enjoyed American History the most and seemed to get a lot out of it. I’ll have to take them back there on our next trip. The family part was more bittersweet and emotional for me. We took a 2 day side trip to PA where my mom is from, and visited the farm where she grew up, the schoolhouse where she attended K-8 (she was a minor celebrity on our visit because there are few who still live there from so long ago and they had 4 photos of her as a child – so wonderful to see!), and the farm where my 6th great-grandfather had his first farm in the early 1700’s. It was absolutely beautiful there, and it meant a lot to see everything especially because my mom’s health is declining. The sad part was seeing the farm where she grew up because the owner who my grandfather sold it to has really done a terrible disservice to it and it has really declined. This was heartbreaking to me because it was a dream of mine to buy it one day and get it back in the family. But the condition of the house, barn and other building is so bad, it would be a money pit just to get it habitable. It was also heart wrenching to listen to my mom describe all of the animals and crops they once had there because I could tell how much it all meant to her and now it’s just a rotting mess. Sad…We also visited my dad’s side of the family, who are DC natives after his parents immigrated in the early 1900’s. I saw my great-grandparents graves in DC and we did some geneology research. On that side, I still have some relatives in the DC area who remember a lot, so that was nice. I guess you could say I’m a typical American mutt, with one side of my family that goes back to the colonial times and the other side that are more recent immigrants. I’m proud of both sides and it was nice to visit/remember them all and share them with my kids (whether they remember or not). Anyway, thanks for letting me share with you all… it was quite a trip!