MEMORIES
I was just sitting here thinking about when I was a kid. This one house we lived in is one place I want to go back to and visit. Oh now it's probably all gone, but surely I'll be able to find the foundation or the cistern, or some sign of the house. It sat about 1/2 mile off the road and now it's just all grown up with weeds. Someone lives a little ways down that road in a trailer. I would love to go and ask them if it's okay if I walked in there to look someday. Of course I would get someone to go with me. I surely wouldn't want to venture in there alone. There were two rows of huge maple trees in the front yard. Surely I can find them and use them as a guide.
Out back was the smokehouse and the chicken house. My friend and I used to play "Annie Over" out there using the chicken house to toss the ball over. Behind all that was our huge garden where Mom and Dad grew all kinds of wonderful vegetables. I was still pretty young back then and don't recall working in that garden all that much. Maybe though, my memory leans towards the fun things more than the not-so-fun things! Those days we rode the mule or the horse. That is where we lived when Dad bought me a pony. He brought it right into the living room to show it to me after he got back from the auction that night! I woke up and there he was with that pony standing at the foot of my bed! Talk about one happy little girl. I sprung out of bed and jumped on its back! Once I had made over the pony Mom told Dad to get the pony out of the house! Haha! My parents were never one for cirtters of any kind in the house, but Dad knew how much I wanted a pony. I had begged for so long! He also had a great sense of humor!
I spent many hours riding that pony who got the name of "PeaJack." Of course that was a name that Daddy gave him. I had wanted to name him "Red." With Dad calling him "PeaJack," that name seemed to stick and he learned his name as PeaJack, so PeaJack it was.
When Dad would go to work he would walk out the lane and he usually carried his dinner in a paper bag. At the road he would wait for the man he carpooled with. One would drive one week and one the next. He said PeaJack would get in the road and had to have a treat from his dinner. He said once PeeJack saw that paper bag he blocked the road and wanted his treat! Dad got in the habit of taking something extra just for PeaJack.
The barn was a few hundred feet from the house and the pig pen was right next to the barn. We always had hogs back then. Come November on a cold day one would get killed and that we used for our winter meat. I'd sure love to have some of that good homemade sausage right now. There was nothing better!
As kids there was never any lack of things to do, especially if you had a friend over. We played in the hayloft. We would walk in the mostly mud pond. We would be barefoot of course and sink in up to our knees and have to help pull each other out! Then we'd get in the other part of the pond where there was still some water and wash off before going home.
Ah, those were such fun times. I don't know why I was thinking about that place this morning and the great memories it brings back.
Out back was the smokehouse and the chicken house. My friend and I used to play "Annie Over" out there using the chicken house to toss the ball over. Behind all that was our huge garden where Mom and Dad grew all kinds of wonderful vegetables. I was still pretty young back then and don't recall working in that garden all that much. Maybe though, my memory leans towards the fun things more than the not-so-fun things! Those days we rode the mule or the horse. That is where we lived when Dad bought me a pony. He brought it right into the living room to show it to me after he got back from the auction that night! I woke up and there he was with that pony standing at the foot of my bed! Talk about one happy little girl. I sprung out of bed and jumped on its back! Once I had made over the pony Mom told Dad to get the pony out of the house! Haha! My parents were never one for cirtters of any kind in the house, but Dad knew how much I wanted a pony. I had begged for so long! He also had a great sense of humor!
I spent many hours riding that pony who got the name of "PeaJack." Of course that was a name that Daddy gave him. I had wanted to name him "Red." With Dad calling him "PeaJack," that name seemed to stick and he learned his name as PeaJack, so PeaJack it was.
When Dad would go to work he would walk out the lane and he usually carried his dinner in a paper bag. At the road he would wait for the man he carpooled with. One would drive one week and one the next. He said PeaJack would get in the road and had to have a treat from his dinner. He said once PeeJack saw that paper bag he blocked the road and wanted his treat! Dad got in the habit of taking something extra just for PeaJack.
The barn was a few hundred feet from the house and the pig pen was right next to the barn. We always had hogs back then. Come November on a cold day one would get killed and that we used for our winter meat. I'd sure love to have some of that good homemade sausage right now. There was nothing better!
As kids there was never any lack of things to do, especially if you had a friend over. We played in the hayloft. We would walk in the mostly mud pond. We would be barefoot of course and sink in up to our knees and have to help pull each other out! Then we'd get in the other part of the pond where there was still some water and wash off before going home.
Ah, those were such fun times. I don't know why I was thinking about that place this morning and the great memories it brings back.
posted by Rachel at 6:34 AM
14 Comments:
I'm so glad you were thinking of those memories and that you chose to share them! I can tell that you enjoyed living there and have lots of fun memories. It's obvious that you had a special relationship with your dad too! A pony in the house! What a great surprise for a little girl!
Rachel, that's a nice write-up you did on your old home and some about life there. Thank you.
Our home life was pretty much like yours except Dad didn't have a town job. The little farm had to support us.
Mom would get awfully upset if an animal would come into 'her' house. I had Dad's horse, Minnie, to ride to school on for the first two years of country high school.
I am thinking you have read about most of that on my blog. Even that the house where I was born got torn down just lately by its new owner.
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Last year I finally visited the house where I lived from age one through eight. It sure doesn't look like what I remembered. I would love to go inside but it is being lived in. I want to write about it and I also took two pictures of it. We drove by it a few times before I finally realized that it was the house.
We were never allowed any animals in the house. Mom always said No! That is why I have 3 cats today.
Oh Rachel, I do hope you can go and try to find where your old house used to be! I wish I could be with you, I love stuff like that:-) When I brought my mom to where her childhood home used to be, it was so overgrown it was impossible to even get to where the house once stood, darn it! lol Loved reading your memories of your childhood home and can well imagine how absolutely thrilled you were to get your own pony:-) I had asked for a pony but all I ever got was a wooden one! lol
I'm lucky that the 5 homes we lived in are still all standing and I drive by them often. Wish I could get the nerve to knock on the doors and find out if I could see the insides. The one house I can still picture the inside clearly in my mind is the first house where we lived from when I was born to age 10. Dad then built us a new house next door to that one which we lived in for 3 years then he built us 3 more houses on the outskirts of town which we lived in for a year or two each. He would build the houses to sell but we always lived in them for a year or so before he would sell them. xoxo
Rachel
I do hope someday you can go back there. I've started writing up some of the stories from my childhood and younger days and I think you are right - we remember the fun stuff not so much the work stuff.
Your dad taking the pony into the living room just cracked me up. I must have sat here for five minutes laughing about it.
Ralph
Wonderful! I know why you were thinkging about it-it was HOME : ) You should go back and see if there is anything left-you know there'll be memories.
Do go back and ask to walk through your childhood home. Most people are just fine with this but take a friend as you said.
My sisters and I didn't have a pony but we raised pigs, chickens, turkeys and geese. One goose hated me and attacked me every time I went outside. I was delighted when it was butchered and I thoroughly enjoyed chewing it's roasted meat too!
You write about these days in such a way Rachel, that I feel like I am there with you....Your Pony sounds like he was such a sweetheart! And I love that your daddy brought him in the house---What a GREAT GREAT Surprise! I hope you write more about those days, my dear....!
Hi,
Seeing that you’re a green advocate (and blogger) I wanted to reach out and see if you were interested in an article that I recently have written. It's on the Olympics and the steps they're taking to go green and decrease the environmental impact that it has. While sports is something far from the topic of your blog, I think that you will find it interesting and informative, and not overwhelming on the sports content, besides a few facts on the last Olympics, it is primarily about the Olympics going Green.
I'm looking to spread awareness of the fact that even though the Olympic Games are fantastic and unifying, they are it's quite a carbon-rich event and are not that environmentally sound.
Nerissa Barry
nerdbarry@gmail.com
Simpler times... were a lot nicer than kids seem to have it today with all of their hot shot techno gadgets. Give me simple! ~ j///b
Oh, Rachel! I enjoyed reading this post sooo much! I can relate to this kind of life as I'm a country girl too.My husband has memories similar to these also! We need to get together and compare stories! :)
Enjoy your spring days, Rachel.
Junie
I always want to go back and refresh the fond memories but when I get there nothing is as I remember.
Rachel dear....So glad you stopped by. I'm not doing so great. It is a very hard time, I'm afraid, and I am not feeling very well physically, either...But...we press on. Sending you big hugs, my dear....
Oh my goodness Rachel, I could have written this post! It is so much like my childhood and even the part of Dad buying me a pony and bringing her into the house!!! Of course Mom wasn't having that so the pony didn't stay long in the house but it was funny!
We loved to jump in the hay too but weren't supposed to. My grandfather said it broke the hay down but you can bet we did it every chance we got! One time my sister was swinging across the barn on a rope and hit her leg and sprained it. That was the end of swinging from the rope!
I have a cat named Munchie too, well actually it's Munchkin but we call her Munchie. She is a sweetie too. We got her at a shelter along with her brother Noodles.
That was one HUGE boat that they moved!!!
Glad you stopped by and hope you keep on coming by, I love to meet new friends! Pea and I have been blogging together for over four years. I'm so excited that I won her Easter Give Away!
Take care!
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