Show Us Your Life Friday - My Hometown(s)

My Hometown(s)

Today on Show Us Your Life Friday, we are showing our hometown. I grew up from birth to 7th grade in one town, and then we moved to another for my 8th grade and high school years (and my parents still live there now). Both places have things I love, so I want to share about both towns. And, know that I don't have really any pictures, except what I got off the Internet (recall: Katrina got the pictures...)...here we go!

Here's a map showing DeFuniak Springs, Florida, and Crestview, Florida. They are both in the FL panhandle, about 30 minutes from Destin and the beaches. Like I said above, my family lived in DeFuniak until right after 7th grade, and then we moved to Crestview.

One of the neatest things about DeFuniak is that it has a huge lake in the center of town. I think this lake is like the 2nd roundest lake in....I don't remember...of course, I want to say the world, but I'm sure that's not true. Anyway, it's almost perfectly round. Around the like are gorgeous houses like the one below. The couple of years I went to middle school here, we were close to the lake and would walk to it on Fridays for P.E. and have to run around it. I started piano lessons in the 4th grade and took from a lady who lived pretty close to around the lake. I went to West DeFuniak Elementary School and then Walton Middle School. Isn't this house beautiful? It's just one of many around the lake that are gorgeous. My family owned a clothing store downtown called Wise Department Store. My mom taught at Walton Middle School - 8th grade English.

Here's a picture of the Public Library in DeFuniak. It's the oldest Public Library in the entire state of Florida - crazy, huh? Momma used to take me here almost every single week and we would check out books to read. It's one of my very favorite places. Two of my favorite restaurants in DeFuniak are Tastee Freeze (also known as Ed's Restaurant) - they have the best steer cheeseburger and krinkle cut fries I've ever had. Oh, and they have real cherry coke - like coke with chunks of cherries that come up through your fat straw. It's awesome! My other favorite restaurant is called Mom and Dad's. It's an Italian restaurant.

When I was in 4th grade, my parents decided to close Wise Department Store. For a couple of years my dad did some different things, and then my Grandpa asked him to come to work with him and reopen a tractor store Grandpa owned years ago and had sold to some people (and it didn't go well for them - many reasons - will not go into it). So...when I was in 8th grade (or maybe a year or two before), Daddy started at Wise Equipment. Wise Equipment was in Crestview, 30 minutes away from DeFuniak, so we started a move. This was a great move for my family - I'm SO THANKFUL we moved to Crestview. My mom got a job at Richbourg Middle School in Crestview teaching 8th grade English. The schools were a lot bigger, so I had a great experience at the high school there (which I'll elaborate more down below). Anyway, Wise Equip. was a big hit - they reopened it and over the years as Crestview has boomed in growth, Wise Equip. has grown too. I worked a lot there over some of my college years and even some of my first couple of married years when I moved back home.

Here's a picture of my high school. I know you are thinking that you can't believe I was a Bulldog in high school. I didn't really think that was a big deal until moving to Georgia and becoming up close and personal with the Georgia Bulldogs - now, I can't believe I cheered for Bulldogs in high school. The high school was fantastic. I had GREAT teachers, and I played the piano the years I was there for our choral program. I could not have had a better high school experience. My senior year, especially, was fantastic. At the end of the year, in true small town fashion, they shut down the main highway through town and let the seniors have a parade through town. Then, we all head to the football field and do a field day kind of things with all sorts of relays. I graduated with honors in 1999 - all my family had come up from Winter Haven for graduation, and then it rained like crazy in the middle of the outside graduation! My best friend was Stephanie Luke, and we loved to drive around to all kinds of places, eat McDonalds french fries with cold ketchup, drink Surge (who remembers Surge??), and eat Mia's bread sticks. Being in Crestview and at the high school there, since it was so much larger than DeFuniak, really gave me greater opportunities - and more people to fit in with. There was more of a Christian crowd, and I was able to play the piano for lots more stuff.

That's about it! I had a great hometown!! Both of them! My heart is more in Crestview since that's where I started driving, gaining independence, and really felt like it was MY town. But, DeFuniak was a great place, as well. Thanks for learning about my hometown today! Sorry I don't have any of my own pictures up on here!!