Memory Lane

Daddy brought home pictures last night from his last two trips to his hunting ground in the Frozen Tundra. There were only about a dozen but boy did they bring back memories for me. He hunts every year at my uncle's place where my brother and I used to visit about 30+ years ago.

As the kids and I were looking at them again this morning, I told them how it was one of my favorite places to go as a child. There were hundreds of acres to explore. Always all kinds of animals, domestic and other wise.

When we first started visiting my uncle's on the weekends, there was no running water and no electricity. And we didn't care! There was NEVER any T.V. and never a phone. All weekend long we would listen to Waylon and Willie (I have some songs on my iPod). We would fall asleep listen to Honky Tonk Heroes and various other blues artists (in part where my love of all kind of music comes from). When we were inside during the day we would play 21 and War.

But most the time my brother and I would play outside. Have picnics on the hillside watching for deer. Play in the hayloft of the big barn while dozens of cows would be feeding down below. We would see lynx footprints in the snow. And watch fish swim down the little creek that the bridge to the house crossed over. In the winter the little creek would freeze over.

And, if we were really lucky, on Saturday night it would snow really hard and it would be impossible for us to leave Sunday to go back home. The drive way was at least a mile long and up hill to get out! Sometimes when we would arrive late on a Friday, the gate would be locked and we would have to walk the length of the "drive way" to the house surrounded by cows.

There was a small mountain which we named Mount Uncle. My dad either embroidered it or cross-stiched it on teh back of a denum shirt.

On Saturday afternoons sometimes we would go into town (of about 500 I think) and go to the bar. My brother and I would play the pinball machine over and over again.

One year my dad took his Rambler down there and used it to "round up" one of the horses. They hit a ditch in one of the pastures, dropped the transmition. I am pretty sure that was the end of the Rambler.

We spent Halloween there one year. My uncle took a flashlight and would go to the windows and shine the light up in his mouth while peering in the window. Oooo, scary!

There were the greatest maps hanging on the kitchen wall. Like the kind you would see in a classroom. I loved those maps and honestly, when the kids and I do geography now, occassionaly I think about them. I think that inspired my love of geography! I will have to check with daddy to see if they are still there.

Their was the blue room, which my brother and I slept in.

There was always a huge fire outside and the adults would hang around it until the wee hours of the morning.

We were never allowed sugar. I learned to love GrapeNuts cereal with honey.

One time we bought some live ducks from a neighbor and killed them, defeathered them and had them for dinner.

There was a wood burning furnace, so in the mornings it was always very chilly.

During hunting seasons, when my brother and I played outside (just around the house) we had to wear orange.

We would find old decaying barns with cow bones all around them.

The last time I was there, Little Mama was 18 mos and Nature Girl was 3 1/2. It was during hunting season and the guys that were there were some of the same guys that were there 30 years ago during hunting season. The kids and I stayed in a hotel for lots of different reasons. Our plan is to go next year. But who knows. That is many months away.

As the kids and I were looking at the few pictures and I was noticing some changes, I told them some of my fondest childhood memories are from that place. I have many more memories from there and maybe some day I will share them. If I can figure out how to scan pictures, I might add them later too . . .