The House that Built Me

Occasionally, a song comes on the radio that really hits a nerve.

It’s really no secret I loathe today’s country music, so I really don’t listen to the radio much. There’s an occasional song I discover that’s amazing, but in today’s country – that doesn’t happen often. But it DID happen with Miranda Lambert’s “The House that Built Me”. I don’t care much for most of Miranda’s stuff (I still say Tammy Wynette must be rolling over in her grave at stuff like “Fastest Girl in Town”…sigh.), but this absolutely has to be the best song she ever cut.

My Granny lived in the same apartment complex my entire life. A few years before she passed, they moved her to the bottom floor to make it easier to get around. But most of my life, she lived in the same apartment. My sister and I loved going to Granny’s, running up the stairs to the door – grabbing the wobbly rail in the stairs with Mom yelling to slow down because of that wobbly rail, carving drawings in the little wooden peephole.  The apartment never changed. The back bedroom my sister & I “claimed”, and where we spent so many nights playing together  - but rarely actually slept in.  Because at bedtime, it was ALWAYS one of us in the other end of the couch in the living room with Granny and the other one on the floor.

When Granny passed away in 2010, we had the week to clean out the new apartment & sell her car. The man who moved into her old apartment was the man that bought it, and as Samantha & I went over to give him the paperwork, we were overwhelmed with emotions as we opened the door.  How was it that 26 years later, it had the same significant scent? That the rail in the stairwell was still wobbly? That our drawings were still carved into the door? I’m not sure how we composed ourselves as he opened the door and we were greeted in the kitchen that we spent so much time in. I immediately felt like the 6 year old again as I looked at my sister, and half expected Granny to come walking in and get onto us for playing with her lipstick stash she always had in the other room.

sitting on those steps for the last time with my sister

It was beyond overwhelming to leave that apartment for the last time, to walk down the stairs for the last time. I’ve never been so thankful for it to be just me and my sister. Samantha & I had to run an errand and as we got in the car, “The House that Built Me” came on the radio, the first time I had ever heard it.

“I just had to come back one last time. Ma’am I know you don’t know me from Adam, but these hand prints on the front steps are mine. Up those stairs in that little back bedroom is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar.”

It was like I’d been hit with a ton of bricks, and literally had to catch my breath.

It came on the radio this morning as I was about to pull in the office, and I literally had to pull over.  I have no idea what about it hit me today.  But this is the sign of a seriously good song. THESE are the songs artists are going to be remembered for.