Published: April 14, 2009 08:52 pm      

GESENHUES: Moving to a new zip code

In the next few weeks, I will be moving three zip codes over from Floyds Knobs to Georgetown. For outsiders this may not seem like a big deal, what’s one more exit west on I-64 when you are on the sunny side of the river? But for me, it’s going to be a shift in my collective Southern Indiana consciousness.

First, I’ll have to make an allegiance to a new ice cream shop. In Floyds Knobs, I’ve always been partial to the Berry Twist vanilla and sherbet twist. My new ice cream stop will be Polly’s Freeze. I’m not sure how I feel about this now, but am confident the transition will become easier as the weather gets warmer. Hopefully by mid-summer I will be fully acclimated.

My Jazzercise location will change too. I wonder what my new excuse for not going will be after I move?

My coffee shop addiction has caused me the most anxiety. Does Georgetown have a coffee shop? Will they have a Knobs Caramel on par with Hob Knobb? What if I go there and am not related to a single person in the cafe? The anxiety of this possibility has been too much. It’s looking like my latte supplier will be the one thing that keeps me crossing the Georgetown border back into Floyds Knobs.

While I’m ecstatic about our move, there is much I am going to miss about being in “the Knobs” besides our Hob Knobb Roasting Company. The drive to my grandmother’s Sunday dinners is going to be a bit longer, and I won’t be going down Spickert Knob Road every morning anymore. The view of Louisville from the top of Spickert Knob is my favorite. I’ve taken it for granted the past four years, driving from my house to my daughter’s daycare. During these final days, I plan to pause every morning and say a heartfelt good-bye to the Louisville skyline.

Our weekly carry-out orders from Arni’s pizza will not be as regular and I’ll have to find a new gas station. Much to my daughter’s dismay, there will be no more walking to the playground at Floyd Knobs Elementary. We will eventually get our own swing-set, but it won’t measure up the school’s equipment that she has thought of as her own since she was old enough to climb on the jungle gym bars and bridges.

And then there is the whole knowing-where-I’m-going thing. My sense of direction is not noteworthy. I know Floyds Knobs well only because I’ve been driving the same roads since I got my license. Now I have a whole new township that I must become familiar with. Since getting an accepted offer on our new house, I’ve taken two family members to see it. Both times I missed a turn and ended up having to call my husband for directions. This will have to be remedied or my new route home is going to be even longer than anticipated.

My immediate family and several of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandmothers are all Floyds Knobs-ians. I’m curious about how the move will affect our family standing. Will we be outcast? Will there be whispers before Sunday dinners and holiday gatherings? (“Can you believe they moved all the way out to Georgetown? What are they going to do, become farmers?”) Will I be the black sheep once I’m outside of the 47119 zip code?

Not so long ago, a few family members switched zip codes, the first to do so since our ancestors came over from Germany. My only hope is that our move goes over as smoothly as their move did. I’m thinking that I may have to do some bribing, maybe host some holiday gatherings, have a few cook outs; the real issue is to assure everyone that the drive to our new house really isn’t that far away. (This is a difficult task being that most of us live within a three-mile radius of Scottsville Road.)

In the end, they will just have to accept it and love me regardless of the last two numbers of my zip code.



Amy Gesenhues is a freelance writer who lives in Floyd County, Indiana. You can read her daily commentaries at www.AmyWroteIt.Wordpress.com. Email her directly at amy@amywroteit.com.