Being from a Place, But Not being from a Place

    I am from Indiana. This state, one of the earliest ones after the original 13, was created by the United States in the early 1800s, about 200 plus years ago. It was drawn up by the early American former colonists to be the size of the modern South Korea, the remnant of the ancient kingdom of Korea, a peninsula between the seas of China and Japan. But this is mostly only a reference to size, not to the places of East Asia.

    Not a really big place in the scheme of things. Far fewer people and known history than Korea. I grew up there, in the Hoosier State, the "Crossroads of America"; we had 92 counties. There were many that I never made it to, to see or experience. I knew people from many of them that I have still never visited. Much of the north I have never seen.  I may have visited a small minority of the cities and counties north of Indianapolis, in the center, and maybe a better number in the south. I am from the south, and more of our activities were done down there. 

    Even in my adult years, which now outnumber the 22 years that I was a resident of Indiana, when I go back to see my family that remains (dwindling more since last year with another death) I am able to see and experience new things in Indiana. I was able to go to some neat caves last year, while getting longer and longer in the tooth. Some that I had never seen before.

    I have a map of Indiana in my house, as I have mentioned before. In it I see towns, parks, rivers, roads, and other things that I have never seen or heard of. There is an alphabetical list of towns and cities, a gazetteer of sorts. Today I looked at the Y towns and cities. I believe that I have been to none of them.

Yankeetown

Yeddo

Yenne

    

Yeoman

Yoder

    

York

Yorktown

Yorkville

Young America

Young's Creek

Youngstown

    

Yountville

    

    I do not think that I have done or seen anything in any of these Y towns and places in my home state. Perhaps I gassed up in one? Or drove by another? Perhaps there is one of these that I have done something, and it is not in my conscious memory. 

    Perhaps none of that matters at all, and I am missing nothing about any of these places. Perhaps there are one hundred or a thousand Y places in the world that are worth seeing, visiting, and these places in Indiana are really just afterthoughts. I should maybe look to further climes and places. Historical and important cities, ruins, monuments, parks.

    This whole subject, my conjecture, may be of little worth. Like, even knowing your own home state.

    Does any of this matter?

    Probably not.

    But, it is interesting to be from a place, and yet many of us are still not familiar with that place.

    That was my idea. Maybe I will look for these Y towns more, and potentially make memories there. When I am back home in Indiana. Where is Yoder? Yeddo?

    You never know.

    Where are you from? Have you been around there?