Hitchout.
From today, after twenty-three years there, I officially no longer live in Hitchin.
Elwood looks down at Hitchin: the master of all he surveys (01.02.19) |
What's changed is I've sold the flat my dad helped me buy seventeen years ago, with the funds going toward his childhood home. Still, leaving Hitchin is a big thing to process. The beautiful little market town has become hardwired as my home; a base to come back to when I was touring; a location to run a comedy club; a place to carve my own identity (with the emphasis on the "tit" bit).
That's not to say I'm not pleased to be moving to the village where my dad grew up. And it's not a completely new experience as it was our base for much of the pandemic while we waited for the flat to go. But the moment the sale went through was significant; to no longer have a base in the town I've lived since I was a nineteen-year-old drama student was a big moment.
I'll always love it. And if asked at gunpoint where I class as home, I'd still answer "Hitchin" before asking why their question was so high-stakes. They had better not rescind my key to the city, though.