Maple Hill

A farm in Maple Hill, North Carolina is where my father was born and grew up. My Uncle Ken, Aunt Faye, Aunt Anita and Aunt Frances were all born there as well.

Maple Hill is not large enough to be considered a town. Wikipedia calls it "a small grouping of houses in Pender County."

But to me, Maple Hill was where Grandma Marshburn lived. As a child, it was one of my favorite places to visit. The family gatherings in the summer and at Christmas were special times to me. The house was surrounded by fields, so there was plenty of space to play outside.

Grandma lived by herself after Granddad Marshburn died of cancer in 1986, and I always wondered at how she did not get scared, being out there by herself at night. Her house was a place where you could see so many stars at night because there were no artificial lights. The only thing making noises would be the wind through the trees or creatures such as crickets.

Grandma always said the dark made her feel more comfortable, though. If she was in the dark in her house, it was like no one could see her, yet she could see out a window by the moonlight to tell if anyone was around.

I have a few cousins as well from that side of the family. Duane, Michael and Donna, Brian and Karen, Maurice and Priscilla. Of course, my younger brother Adam was always there.

Brian and Adam in particular were good athletes, and in the summer time we played baseball in the front yard. At Christmas time, it was touch football.

I anticipate that many of my future blog entries here will involve memories from Maple Hill. I wanted to write about it in general as one of my first entries because the Maple Hill that I remember does not exist anymore.

Grandma Marshburn died in 2004. My brother and all of my cousins are grown adults in their 30s, living in different places, now. Grandma's house has changed hands and my family tells me that it has fallen into disrepair.

It's been years since I've been back to Maple Hill, and there is really no reason to visit anymore, other than to see what it looks like now.

A lot of my best childhood memories are from Maple Hill, though, and I look forward to writing about them in the near future.

Nathan Marshburn