“Don’t Hassle Me, I’m Local”

The Joy of (re)Discovering Your Own Hometown

Being in the Army, my concept of ”home” is somewhat, well, skewed. As my husband loves to say, ”home is where you get your mail.” And to some extent, he’s right. I am originally from Texas, but I haven’t really considered that my home in years—not because I don’t love Texas, but rather because adopting your new place as home makes moving around much easier to bear. I think of it in much the same way I think of jet lag on a trip to Europe. Once you arrive, you adjust to local time as quickly as possible and for God’s sake… don’t nap! It will only make it worse. So it goes that when I move to a new duty station, that’s my home… full stop.

Fayetteville, North Carolina… an Introduction

We live in Fayetteville, North Carolina and are both stationed at Fort Bragg. Ask anyone in the Army and they know it as The Center of the Universe, mainly due to its enormous population. Fort Bragg itself gets a ton of respect, whereas Fayetteville (one of the towns that borders Fort Bragg), well, it sometimes gets very little. Nicknames like ”Fayettenam” do little to help improve its reputation. And because it gets such a bad rap, families who are new to the area will often choose to forgo living in Fayetteville and opt for Southern Pines and endure the 45 minute drive to work each day. When I first moved here to join my husband, who was already stationed here, I had one rule—30 minutes door-to-door. I knew I would have early mornings and late nights and the last thing I wanted was a mind numbingly long drive to and fro. So, Fayetteville it is!

To be honest, we don’t spend a lot of time out and about in Fayetteville. We both love to cook and when we aren’t traveling, we spend our time catching up on all of the housework and yardwork that pile up during the week. However, last weekend, we decided to journey out into Fayetteville and check out a new (to us) brewery and restaurant downtown—Gaston Brewery—and the experience re-introduced me to my hometown. Walking down Hay Street (the downtown’s main street of shops and restaurants), it was as though I was seeing it for the first time and I was impressed. The whole experience reminded me of something I already knew—home is not only where you get your mail; it’s also what you make of it.

Home is What You Make of It

Most military bases are situated approximately an hour to an hour and a half from a small or mid-sized city. Fort Bragg is no exception. Hop in the car and within an hour you could be in Raleigh, Durham, or Chapel Hill or Southern Pines and Pinehurst. Each of these towns offer world class dining and shopping; not to mention sports teams and events. You could spend every weekend on the road, hunting down something exciting to do in the next town over (and many people do). The problem is, if you are constantly driving somewhere else, then it is easy to think that your hometown just doesn’t measure up. Where Fayetteville is concerned, if you haven’t taken a moment to just stroll down Hay Street or walk the Cape Fear River Trail, wander through the botanical garden, or watch a Woodpeckers game at Segra Stadium, you are missing out on something wonderful right under your nose!

An Afternoon in my Hometown

Back to last weekend. We decided to check out Gaston Brewery (mainly for this blog, to be honest). Since we had decided to forgo any real travel and to instead keep it local, Gaston seemed like the perfect place. We drove downtown and walked around a bit. The sun was shining, tons of people were out walking along the street on what was really the very best kind of spring day. Fayetteville is gorgeous in the spring; alive with azalea bushes in vibrant pinks and purples. It is my favorite time of year here.

Gaston Brewery did not disappoint. The food was