A few weeks ago Victoria Lee wrote about an experience that is almost always met with a profound sense of sadness: “Saying Goodbye to Your Childhood Home“. Saying goodbye to any place we once called home can be difficult, but there’s something doubly hard about leaving the home where we grew up. No matter where life may take us, our childhood home always holds a special place in our hearts.

As I spent a lazy Sunday at my grandparents’ house last weekend (ironically, across the street from my childhood home), we began watching a new comedy special on HBO from one of my favorite actors and comedians, Billy Crystal. In his autobiographical one man show named 700 Sundays, he spends about 2 hours talking about his memories of childhood and the eventual road he took to comedy and acting.

It was a joy to watch Billy Crystal’s love letter to his family and past, but the closing monologue about how he felt about finally leaving his childhood home struck a strong chord with me.

“It was so hard to leave this house
There are so many stories in this house
We grew up here. We ate great food here. We laughed here.
We made people laugh here.
I was a Yankee here. i saw Roger Maris’s 61st home run right here.
I saw Johnny Carson’s first Tonight Show ever right here.
I saw The Beatles here. I saw men walk on the moon here!
I fell in love here. I became a father here.
I mourned here.
It was my house. A lot of stories.”

– Billy Crystal

As Tom Selleck says in our “Your Home” television ad, houses are held together by nails and brick, but homes are made by the life the people within the walls give it. It’s about those “infinite memories” we create within them.

I’m sure we’re all creating amazing new memories wherever we call home now, but there’s something extra special about the homes we grew up in. Here’s to our childhoods, and the wonderful people in our lives that made growing up in our homes a joy.

Cheers.