There is No Place Like Home

By Ken Anderson, themayberryguru@gmail.com

For many people, summer means vacations and travel to exciting places. However, for me, summer truly means appreciating home. Throughout our 56 years of marriage, my wife and I have taken several long trips, but we have always found ourselves eager to return home. We value the comfort and familiarity of being in our own surroundings and among friends. While we always enjoyed our travels, the best part was always coming home.

I have lived in six communities since my family moved to Dorchester in 1951, and all of them have been in Wisconsin. All but one of these communities had fewer than 1000 people.  It was my choice to live in small towns and to always stay in Wisconsin. There is no other place in the world where I would rather live. To me, there truly is “No Place Like Home”.

“There is no place like home” is a very familiar saying. It means your own home is the best and most comfortable place in the world. No matter how nice other places are, nothing beats the safety and familiarity of where you live.

On April 1, 1968, Andy Griffith left The Andy Griffith Show. As a result, the writers had Andy move to Raleigh, where he got a more important job. However, on April 13, 1986, Andy moved back to Mayberry in the movie Return to Mayberry. It was the heartwarming story of Andy returning to his beloved Mayberry after being gone for so many years.

Most people are very familiar with the classic movie The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy is caught up in a tornado and ends up in the magical land of Oz.  All she wants to do is go back home to Kansas. After all her exciting exploits seeking her way home, she finally discovered that all she had to do was click her shoes together three times and say, “There is no place like home.”

In 1989 the movie No Place Like Home told the story of a family who lost their house. The movie shows their struggles as they try to stay together while living in a homeless shelter. All they want to do is go back home again and have their lives the way they once were.