On our recent trip to Nebraska we had the opportunity to take a short trip down memory lane while we were picking Teri up in Twin Falls. All of us girls were born there. Connie and Lucy moved away before they were teenagers. We took a very small bit of time to go see some of the places we used to live and frequent as kids. One of the pictures is a place called Mama T's. In our day it was called Blake's Big T. It was the local swimming pool close to where we lived. It was in the shape of a large T. It is no longer there but they play miniature gold there instead. Anyway you ever notice how small something appears when you get to be an adult. Can't imagine the pool would hold very many of us and it never seemed crowded.
There was also a park not to far from our house called Harry Barry Park. It also had a swimming pool and it is no longer there. That pool was not as nice as the other one but it was still a great place to get cool when it was hot.
The house we lived in had a ton of trees around it. Some of the trees are gone but the pines that were so small Connie could jump over it and she was only 12 have reached 30 to 40 feet. I guess if I stop and think about how long ago that was I really should not surprise me. We had a bing cherry tree, a peachcot tree, a sour cherry tree, and many elms as well as bushes. The house was less than 1000 sq. feet and never seemed crowded.
The yard was huge and Mom always planted a big garden that we harvested and canned to get us through the winter. Mom still plants a garden to this day. Connie, Lucy and myself have followed in her foot steps. Mom's thumb is certainly green for both indoor and outdoor plants. I have no luck with the indoor ones. The only ones a can't kill are the ones made of silk. They look good and required no water. YEAH! I do have to tell you about a couple rows of spuds Mom planted some years ago. The rows looked great when they went in but when the plants came up part of one row was missing. Seems part of one row had been planted into the first row. Some where in the pictures we have there is one of that. I will have to see if I can locate it and post for all to see.
The other house that is one of my fondest is the first house Richard and I shared as husband and wife. Wow! Not that it was great or anything but it was an adventure. The first winter there was a cold one. The house did not come equipped with a furnace or heater, imagine that, we had to provide our own. My Dad had an old Segler oil stove he let us use. It was located in the living room. The whole house had 9 foot ceiling and as we all know heat rises. The house did have an oil barrel on the north side of it, but we were so young we couldn't get the local oil company to deliver us a barrel full. It was only 50 gal. and the price was only about .20 cents a gallon but when you only bring home $70.00 every two weeks they were just not willing to give us their trust. We used a 5 gal. can to fill the barrel up. One really cold and windy night we ran out of oil. We made the 6 mile trip into town, filled the 5 gallon can then home we went. I got to hold the funnel, which was the outside of an old head light. It worked great when the wind wasn't blowing but this particular night the wind was howling from the north. I got to hold the funnel, all the while Richard was pouring I was getting a steady stream of #2 diesel fuel down the sleeves of my coat. Not to pleasant an experience. We laughed about it for a long time. Laughed more about that little house. The warmest place in it was in the bathroom after you filled the tub with hot water. We used a heating pad to warm our bed up and slept in long john under. Not very romantic for someone who had been married less than 6 months. We did have fun out there. Even when we got snowed in, or when the water pipes froze. They never froze in the house but out in the drive area. Our land lord would bring me a milk can full of water. Dig a hole in the ground to the pipe. Hook his portable welder to it and spend several hours thawing the pipe. Summer found us surrounded by beet fields, wheat fields and corn fields. Those were the days.
I love old memories. It is was we are all made of. Makes us who we are, shapes the way we behave and gives us roots. The memories we forge now will do the same for our children and grandchildren. Life past was good, life present is fabulous, live future full of promise and mystery. Go out and make a memory every chance you get. They are so worth it.
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