A memory

As I sit at my computer and look out I think.  A perfect day.  There was over an inch of rain last night and the air seems so fresh.  It reminds me of times long ago.

A SUMMER DAY IN EARLY JUNE OF 1957

There is NO call from Mom this morning.  Dave and I wake up about the same time.  We remembered that we went to bed listening to the rain and now as Dave gets up and peers out our window he has a big smile on his face.  He says, "I can tell by the tracks going into the shop that we got a lot of rain last night."  He climbs back into bed and we begin to plan out a fun day.  It was supposed to be a rock picking day.  Dad has all the fields planted but they are not up yet.  That means that every day is a rock kind of day.  But we know that will not be the case today as the fields will be too wet.  On wet days like this Dad usually ends up going some place or doing some picture work.  For us we know it will be a "play day".  Yes, we know the barn pens could be cleaned but Dad usually forgets about that.  We know we could do some work in the granary but Dad also usually does not mention that.  So as we lie in bed in the early morning hours we put together a plan for the day.  Of course we have to milk the cows this morning but that really will not take long.  I have in mind that I want to spend some time in the driveway.  There is a low spot that Dad has never built up so after a rain it is always filled with water.  I love to dig little ditches and drain the water and I know that is a good thing as it makes the driveway dry up faster but for me it is just fun to dig and drain and watch the water drain into the tall grass to the south.  But Dave has other plans.  He suggests we take some of the old wood that is in the shop and make some things.  He suggests we can make more guns that will shot rubber bands or we just could draw on wood and use the coping saw to cut things out.  You can tell that Dave is a bit more creative than me!  

It turns out to be a glorious day.  We do a lot of different things and none of them seem like work.  We make several guns.  I get to drain the water out of the driveway.  Mom gives in and makes pancakes that we drench in chokecherry syrup.  She even goes a bit farther and fries up some ground up venison that was left over from the night before.  We do get the milking done in almost record time and when all is said and done for the early morning Dad is nowhere to be found.  The car is gone and Mom says he went to Geneseo to mail some wedding pictures that he had gotten back the day before.  She then said he probably went to Lidgerwood as he is almost out of film.  

So the day belongs to Dave and I.  It is glorious in that the fresh air, the open country and the western winds just seem to blend into one and we seem to be free as birds.  It is only years later that I can look back and appreciate how special those times were.  Way back then it seemed that life with family would go on and on and on in the same way.  We would always have happy times, siblings and parents would never die and of course life would be one happy event.  

Well as we all know when we get to be adults life is not really that way.  BUT I am so thankful that I was blessed to be in the mentality for several years AND they were good years.  I know that even back then there were times that were not great but it seems, for me, real life begin in October of 1964 when brother Ronald, Red as John and Glorine would say, died suddenly as it seems that was the time that I begin to realize that life is and can be difficult.  Even in difficult times God is good but somehow the innocences of childhood often mask that out.  For that I am grateful and also grateful for the life I have today.