Military Road Memories

There was a tree that was forked about 2.5 feet from the ground in my backyard as a kid.  Between the branches formed the most perfect little sink for a young girl that liked to make mud pies.  My brother and Dad built a tree house above that.

About 20 feet away, we buried the first dog I ever loved/remembered, Lassa.  I got to name her and couldn't pronounce Lassie, I suppose.  She was hit by a car  in front of our house.

Behind and up the hill, we used to go sledding.  Mostly tobaggan.  Pretty convenient as it sloped toward the house and as soon as we were done sledding, we could just walk into the house.

In the back room of the house, I had been climbing on some chairs that had been stacked upside down and when I jumped off, one rough edge of a chair leg's end gouged my thumb.  I still have the scar of where it pulled off skin.

Around the corner in the back yard, next to the garden, we had an above ground pool.  I don't know for how many years.  My brother made a deck for it out of one of those huge wooden cable spools.  Pretty primitive and from the sky, I'm sure looked like a short snowman.  I remember everyone walking around in a coordinated effort in the water and making a current, then letting go and we all were pushed in a circle by it.  I've heard stories about when the side collapsed and water was flowed everywhere...  I don't remember that part.

When we had Cocoa, the Chihuahua, she had pups and they'd chase us around the entire house a billion times.  

Coming around to the front, I remember my dad had put in the basement of our house with us living in the house above.  He dug through the front yard with some kind of digging machine.   The original basement was just under our front room, but the new basement was like visiting a strange and new planet.  I've had dreams about it...  Lots of support beams and a brand new uninstalled shower perched in the corner.  I didn't go to that room a lot.

I remember reading a 101 Dalmations comic book while hiding behind the tv that was on a rolling stand in the front room.  It had grape jelly on it that my sister told me was blood...

Or the time my mom had to vacuum our bedroom REALLY late at night while we were in our bunk beds because company was coming the next day.  Then the light went off and we could go back to sleep.

Or the time when I had a touch of scarlet fever and I made paper chains while laying in Mom and Dad's bed all day and listened to their little box radio.

Or the time I wanted to see what night was, so Dad let me stay up while they all went to bed.  I hid under the dining room table and just watched the night, also thinking that Jesus couldn't see me under the table either.  Mom put me to bed after ten minutes of that.  I'm sure Jesus saw me then.

The front of the house is where the separated garage stood.  It was my dad's workshop basically.  Loads of bikes and other equipment was in there.  It was mostly off limits to me from what I remember. 

I'm on my Dad's lap.  

We moved from this house when I was in 2nd grade.

My dad had remodeled an old bread truck into a recreational vehicle for our family.  He would take off a week or two from work during the summers and we went on proper camping style vacations.  A total "unplug" from work.  The only times I remember doing that with my kids is when we were in Ireland.  Otherwise our cell phones worked and we had internet access everywhere.  It's kind of hard to unplug now...

Back to the van, I remember when I was really little that we got home from a vacation in the van.  Everyone was asleep when we got home, well, except Dad.  He always drove.  Everyone went in to bed.  Except me.  They forgot about me and left me sleeping in the van...  I must have been curled up under a blanket in a corner of one of the benches.

I woke up in the middle of the night and found myself alone.  In the dark, dark night, I walked around the house, knocking on all the windows until Mom and Dad finally woke up and let me in.  I'm not needing therapy, so I guess I still turned out ok.  

Wait....  what exactly is blogging again??!