To home and back

I had a good holiday weekend. I hope you did as well. My readers seemed to, judging from the reduced quantity of emails that were in my inbox this morning.

The crowds that I encountered on the highway might be an indicator of the improving health of the U.S. economy. They did not slow me down much, but seeing families and retirees out seeing America definitely made it seem like a 4th of July weekend.

Throw in the parade and picnic that I attended in Scarville, Iowa, and there was no mistaking which holiday was being celebrated.

It was not a coin collecting trip, but I could never get too far away from numismatics as I visited Lake Mills, Iowa, one of the places I lived when growing up.

Visiting old friends was the point of the trip, and their hospitality made it feel like I had never left.

I could not resist strolling down memory lane. I visited the place I bought my first copy of Coins Magazine. I drove along the route I followed to deliver newspapers for three years.

It is amazing what comes back to mind as I recalled the families that lived in the houses almost 50 years ago.

As is the case in such situations, change has come. Old buildings were gone. Some houses were gone, too. New buildings and new houses either took their place or stood on new sites.

The changes, though, are not so dramatic as to eliminate the sense of going home. It is still very much the place I left when I was 14.

I suppose some of the good news was I met two individuals who were coin collectors. One was active in the field as a kid. The other has a continuing interest but not at a high level.

One of the two had also delivered the same daily paper as I did as a kid, but he did so in the nearby town of Northwood. We swapped anecdotes with each other for a few minutes.

Now I am ready to get back to work, both in the office and at the Iola Old Car Show this weekend.

On the 4th of July I ate hamburgers. This coming weekend I will cook them for others.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2013 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."