Saturday, March 26, 2005

I'll be leaving Kingdom Come

When I was little, my family used to take long car rides up from the Sarn to StKitts to visit my grandparents. We would drive along the 403 and we had certain landmarks. One of the best was the 'waterfall', a pitiful small drainage-pipe flow over the rocky top of the Hamilton 'mountain'. Mom would call, 'here's the waterfall guys!' and we would ooh and ahh over the trickle, which had a habit of drying up to nonexistance in summer and freezing to icicles in winter.
On one trip, Dad didn't come with us, and so one of the kids got to take the front seat. The brother won the toss, so he rode up front the whole way there (I read in the back). When we got to Hamilton, Mom pointed out the waterfall, and I lowered my book briefly to ooh and ahh on cue, and then we went back to our carride activites; Mom silently driving, me reading, my brother laying back, carsick. This particular trip (bro was maybe four or five), he was staring out the window, and when we drove through Hamilton, he started to get really really worked up. You know that state kids can get in, when they're excited and scared and focussed all at once, and they just get super aggitated, like a speed freak on three double espressos? He was like that. It took Mom a while to get him calmed down enough to talk. Finally, little brother managed to turn around and point out what he had seen- his all important find.
Did you parents ever tell you that if you weren't good, they would 'kick you all the way to Kingdom Come'? It sounds bad in text, but Mom usually said it in jest, when she had to fulfill the 'Mom role' by punishing us, but when she really didn't want to.
Apparently, for years the little brother had been imagining 'Kingdom Come' (which I think is actually a reference to the bible). He found Kingdom Come in Hamilton. Officially, it's the 'Cathedral of Christ the King', and it's built on a small hill that overlooks the highway. (I linked it- click the title).
I've kind of always liked living in Kingdom Come.

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