For nine years, up to July 2017 Maribel and I split our time between Peru and the US. We had a charity in Peru named Promesa Peru Chiclayo. For the purpose of this post there is no need to get into the details of the charity but the link is live in case anyone is interested. Actually I don't know what the purpose of this post is or where it's going so I guess we'll find out together as it unfolds.
It dawns on me that I'm taking liberties with the phrase "we'll find out" because I really don't know if there is anyone outside of a couple of friends reading this blog. My old blog about our activities in Peru had hundreds of regular readers from 144 countries. There was an eastern university that asked permission to use the blog as source material and did so for a couple of years. Photos from that blog showed up in a British journal. I regularly received email requests for advice and information. The blog had a lot of traffic because there were and I believe still are lots of folks interested in Peru.
By contrast probably only a handful of people know that this blog exists. It doesn't show up on any search engines. If you Google Twilight in Northwest Georgia you'll get nada, unless you put quotes around it. Don't misunderstand. I'm not complaining. I like to write and sometimes like to put my thoughts on paper. I honestly don't know why I'm doing it on a public forum. Maybe I see it as some sort of legacy...maybe a hundred years from now a descendant of mine will become interested in genealogy and discover who his great, great, great uncle Tom was and what he thought. Okay, back to wherever this thing is going.
Twice each year we'd return to the states for a couple of months for what we half-jokingly referred to as 'back to civilization time'. We'd visit different parts of the country and visit any people we knew in the area. One thing we always did toward the end of the trip was shopping. It was usually me following Maribel from store to store as she looked for presents to take back to friends and family in Chiclayo. And as I followed her I would always have the same thoughts...feeling good about returning to Peru but at the same time feeling sad about leaving the familiar stores, customs and English speaking people. Also on my mind was the impending hassle of packing, checking out of the hotel, returning the rental car, and all of the headaches associated with airports and flying.
Now I know where I'm going with this post. Wherever we were in the states we made it a point to check out the local Kohls and J C Penny stores. Maribel almost always found suitable gifts at those stores. There is a J C Penny store in the Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga, not far from our house. What I'm about to write will seem strange, but here goes. There is a particular spot on the first floor of that store where I experience deja vu...the thought that soon our visit will end and we will be returning to Peru. It only lasts for a second or two and then I realize that I'm not returning to Peru. It's like a Twilight Zone thing; it happens every time in that same location. I can't explain it.
Like every other business in the mall, Penny's closed because of the corona virus. But with Penny's financial problems I'm betting that the store will never open again. It was announced recently that Penny's will be closing 242 stores this year. I have no doubt that the Hamilton Mall store will be one of them. There will probably be a going out of business sale so I may have the opportunity to stand in that location again. I wonder if I will still have the same sensation? Somehow I don't think so.
Yeah I have a blog about Peru too, "Your Friend In Peru" that had hundreds of hits from all over the world but I was never stoopid enough to try and keep count and think they were regular readers let alone read one word. The vast majority, as were yours, were bots if you did not realize that you are much more stoopider than I thought.
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