CARMEN LEE--LIFE IS NOT A VACATION, IT IS A JOURNEY

Day 64, "Every picture has a story"

This picture was taken around Christmas time in 1968.   NO deer head in the picture, great!  I remember because I had purchased my first camera and when we were home I asked Dad a lot of questions about it.  I post this picture because the book review Terry and I went to yesterday morning made me think of Mom and Dad.  I loved Mom and Dad with all my heart and feel they did a great job of raising their 6 children.  BUT I thought, as I listened to the book review, of the thing that I did not get from them and it most likely would have made a huge difference in my life.  Well there is NO promise I would have been a better person and of course I know not if it was true of my siblings but here goes.  I could almost say I needed praise but that sounds a little to trite so I will say I would have benefited from encouragement.  That was who my being was when I was young.  I played football, basketball, baseball and track.  I do not remember Dad ever encouraging me or telling me I did a good job or correcting me or ANYTHING.  I loved to sing and decided to not sign up for high school chorus my senior year just because I WANTED someone to tell me I should.  I know, that is about as weak as it gets but it is the truth.  I wanted Dad to play ball with me and teach me how to throw a curve ball but never.  I mean I would not have expected Mom to do things like that or to say anything and of course she did not.  I remember going to the athletic banquet at the end of my senior year and Dad did come but when they talked about me being captain of the football team and of the basketball team and doing well in track Dad did not smile or look at me.  I am not complaining or saying Dad and Mom were bad parents as I stated I loved them but today it made me wonder "what if' Dad had encouraged me or praised me just a tiny bit???  I may have been a big sports star (just kidding).  I then looked back at how I interacted with my children and I wonder if I have fallen short as well.  I may never know and I am NOT about to ask them at this point in my life.  I look at my siblings and am in awe of what they have done and what they are doing.  One can go down the line from Ronald, Janet, Joan, Dave and Helen.  Oh my they have done so much and have accomplished so much.  I do not know If they had encouragement from Mom and Dad.  I do know that Dad was so so into Ronald and son in law John and for that I am not jealous in the least but today gave me MUCH to think about.  I should comment that this is one of the few pictures that you will find Dad smiling and I am not sure it is because he has his youngest son home for a while!  I do think that smiles from Mom during the Christmas season were not very abundant after Ronald and Janet died.  Oh my but life can be so difficult at times and yet so joyous at times as well.  After saying these things I, if it were possible, would not change my childhood for another.  Given it was not perfect but then who can say they had a perfect childhood?  Mom and Dad, the farm, the country, school and the list goes on, it was a great way and a great place to grow into manhood.  However I would like to forget about the boiled wheat for breakfast and for some reason the Spanish Rice that Mom made was terrible!
Some things I enjoyed the most when growing up:

• Ronald and then Ronald and Glorine coming to visit
• Janet and then Janet and John coming to visit
• All my sports in high school
• times of work and play with Dave
• times with Dave and Joan
• having Helen as a little sister
• the creek and all the fun it provided
• the cows and the barn (I know that may sound funny but)
• the Ford tractor 
• the big red truck
• the hunting and MY 22 from Ronald
• deer hunting out west (hunting around home not so much!)
• I still can taste Mom's pheasant dinners and her spring chicken dinners
• the Bergen Church fall festivals
• biking up to the lake for a swim
• fishing with Dad
• etc. etc. etc.

It is Friday, December 31st in 1955.  New Years Eve Day is almost as exciting as Christmas Eve Day.  It actually may be more so as we do not have the church Christmas Program with the goofy things we had to wear!  Regardless today is ALL fun.  It is Friday and we have been out of school for a week now and with the cold and snow the only work has been getting a rack of hay from down south and then feeding and milking the cows.  Even, at the age of 7, ,I now have some responsibility in milking and then bringing the milk in to be run through the separator.  Oh my that thick cream that comes out is oh so delicious on cream/bread, Mom's pancakes and even the mush we have!  But today is going to be a very fun time.  Dave was good enough to bring in the 5 gallon pail of kerosene and fill the stove in the living room.  I still have problems carrying the darn kerosene into the house without spilling a bit.  When that happens, oh my the odor is not one Mom is happy with.  In later years Dad got real progressive and put a 55 gallon barrel outside on the north side of the house so we did not have to carry the smelly stuffy in the house.  The kerosene is stored in the granary and we usually would have 3 or 4 55 gallon barrels delivered at once.  We would put a pump in a barrel and then fill 5 gallons cans and carry to the house.  I digress.  Here is it 5:30 and even though the day has been fun I can hardly wait for night.  We have sledded down the hill by the outhouse.  Dad spent much of the day with Halvor as they would spot a fox and track it down to shot it.  Often that would be an all day or at least an all afternoon event.  Seldom did they come home empty handed.  The fox would be skinned and then Dad would take the hid up to a man named Crandle and get money for it.  Not sure the money paid for the expensive of the day but that is another story.  Later in life Dad lamented the hunting fox on snowmobiles as neighbors would do.  He felt that was NO sport.  The cows have been milked and we have enjoyed a great supper that Mom fixed.  There was still some lefsa and then we had vision burgers over the cook stove, a feast for a king!  Even though Dave and I had captured the kitchen for a while in the afternoon for our ping pong game we had to have another one after supper.  Leaves would be put in, the table would be turned a bit and we were good to go.  As I stated in my book, "no corner shots on the oblong table!"  It always had to be kind of a comprise as when ping pong was happening everyone else had to be in the living room  That was NO problem for Dad, who always read gun or photography magazines and Mom who may play a bit of piano or most likely would knit.  Joan and Helen would have to find a way to have fun.  As we ended the ping pong we would slice potatoes and fry them on the cook stove.  After that it may be a game of Touring (a card game) and THEN the big event.  We would again make the table as big as possible and empty our new puzzle.  It was then puzzle time until the 500 or 100 piece puzzle was completed.  I was excited because as long as we worked on the puzzle we did not have ANY bed time!!!  Often, long after Mom and Dad had gone to bed, we would triumphly put in the last puzzle piece and then we could hardly wait until morning to show Mom and Dad.  I will NOT get into how we determined WHO got to put in the last piece.  All I will say is my older brother and sister somehow usually were able to FIND the last piece on the floor or so they said!  

That was our New Years Eve activities for several years.  Mixed in there was Lincoln Logs and electric sets that provided 100's of hours of fun.  There was the big slate black board that Mom would draw pictures on and we would cover the chalk lines with kernels of corn, the Parcheesi games, the Monopoly games, the marble and empty shells where we lined them up and then would see who could knock all of the others down first.  Of course we also had MANY little cars to play with.  Gradually, as we grew older times changed.  But for that year of 1955, and before and some time after, life was good with family and activities to enjoy with siblings.  

The December days are going fast.  I think Terry has most of the items for her party.  As of now I know not what I will do during that time but will think of something.  Maybe I need to go to the gun store where they have $50,000 guns to look at or $15,000 pieces of wood that can be made into a custom stock.  Mine you I said TO LOOK only.  Maybe I can find someone to play tennis with in the afternoon.  I do not do that very often but then I would have to come home all sweaty and there may still be some women here and that I need to avoid.  I will see but I am not worried.

I did have my Sunday Kona FP with a splash of Baileys which always gives it a taste that is over the top so to speak.  Time to close for the morning.