A simple question that is often asked is one of the most difficult and puzzling for me. What’s your hometown (a different version of this is: where did you grow up)? Hmm, that’s a good question. How should I answer that? I used to hesitate before answering. It took many, many years, meaning decades, before I settled on a pat answer that never explained very much. I would answer by saying that my father was in the military so we moved a lot.

For years I adopted my father’s hometown and home state as mine. There was good reason for this. After sailing from Japan to the United States in 1959, we drove cross country and spent the summer in Ohio, my father’s home state. Soon, we were off and living in South Carolina. Mid way through second grade, my father was headed to South Korea for a year being posted along the demilitarized zone. While he was away, I returned to Ohio.

After my father’s year in South Korea ended, he was posted to Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Rather than interrupt another school year, I finished the school year in Ohio in May 1963 before moving to Kentucky.

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