This past weekend I took a quick trip back home to Columbus, Ohio to celebrate my Mom’s 80th birthday. My brother and his family traveled from Canfield, Ohio and we all converged at my Mom's house in Johnstown.
Despite how long it's been between visits I'm always amazed by how enjoyable and effortless our time together is. We reserved a small private dining room at Ghostwriter Public House in downtown Johnstown for Saturday night and were all thrilled with the food.
All of the dishes we ordered exceeded expectations. My brother told me the chips and queso were the best he's ever tasted and that's high praise from him, he's a true queso connoisseur. My mom ordered the lemon basil linguini with shrimp (ohio city lemon basil linguini, wood grilled shrimp, new path farms lions mane, oyster & chestnut mushroom, asparagus, baby kale, black garlic butter, chèvre, almonds, scallions) and we were delighted to hear it was the best meal she'd ever eaten in her life.
She doesn't drink alcohol but we ordered her a mocktail called the Mound Builder which was a combination of coconut water, pineapple juice, and bitters, she enjoyed it.
Everything from the ambience to the service was top notch and made my mom's eightieth a birthday to remember. We were all absolutely blown away by our experience at Ghostwriter, this is such a rare thing in our post-Pandemic world. I've eaten at fine-dining restaurants all over the world and this is now in my top three favorites. As Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "I'll be back". True excellence can be found in the least likely of places and I hope they keep it up. If you're in the area be sure not to miss this gem.
I can't tell you how was great to spend time with my family. My nephew and brother and I had several Frisbee throwing sessions in the sweltering summer heat. There's only one problem with visits back home, they're always too short.
My brother and his family had to leave early on Sunday and my mom and I took a drive through the neighborhood I grew up in. It's been almost thirty years since I left for Minnesota and the neighborhood is nearly unrecognizable now (not in a good way).
The small grey house on the left, 586 Elizabeth Avenue, was where nearly all of my childhood memories were made. After all these years it still somewhat resembles the house my parents sold in 2004 but the neighborhood has deteriorated around it. I can so clearly recall riding these streets on my Huffy bike with my friends and walking down the street to the schoolyard to play. We celebrated every birthday, every Christmas, we even huddled in together during the huge blizzard of 1978 and countless tornado warnings. Now this little house is the stage for some other family's memories. I hope they're as good as ours were.
On Sunday we had lunch at my Mom's favorite restaurant in Columbus, Bendi Wok n' Bar.
After this we took a meandering drive through downtown Columbus, the Short North, and The Ohio State University Campus.
I had a late afternoon flight out on Monday so Mom and I spent the morning looking through old photo albums. I hadn't seen some of these pictures for decades.
Looking at these old pictures really made me realize how fast time passes. We're here on this Earth for such an incredibly short blip.
I've made every effort to visit home throughout the last thirty years, sometimes driving fifteen hours straight just for a long weekend back home. This trip made me realize how much I've missed throughout the last decades. There were entire albums of family pictures that I wasn't in. School plays, birthdays, games, Christmases I wasn't a part of. Life has a way of distorting things, sometimes giving us amnesia.
I've been beyond blessed in my life and I don't have many regrets but one of them is I wish I could have spent more time with my family. Time is a tricky thing. When we're young we have no clue how fast it goes and despite our best intentions there are times when things aren't as easy or don't work out as you planned.
As I was driving away from 586 Elizabeth Avenue in the wee hours of the morning in July of 1995 with my Honda Civic packed with all of my stuff I had no clue what the future held for me. As I saw my parents shrink in the rear view mirror I was scared shitless, but more than that, I was excited for the adventure I was about to undertake. Decades later, I'm amazed by how well it all came together. However, all decisions, even good ones, have consequences and a big part of this phase of life is making peace with this.
As I took off from the Columbus airport I was still buzzing from a weekend of making great new memories. Before the wheels of the plane even left the ground I was already looking forward to the next trip home.
~Eric Vance Walton~
Be well and make the most of this day. Thank you for reading!
(Photos and video are original)
