Remember When?

For some reason lately I have been thinking a lot about my childhood.  Maybe because my boys are between the ages of 8 and 12 and I'm thinking about what life was like for me at their ages.  They hear me talk a lot about things I did growing up.  I feel like life for them is different in some ways, but the same in others.  Kids figuring things out....sometimes the hard way.  Getting hurt, having success AND losses in life.  As I consider my perspective on childhood, I have to say I had a good one.  What made it good?  I'm glad you asked.......

Let me set the stage a little by saying that NONE of theses houses were here:

A 2015 View

A 1967 View

We had a GIANT playground!

• Ronald Reagan (of course)!  He was THE president that I remember growing up.  He came in to office when I was learning to read and he left office when I was learning to drive.  (I'll save you the trouble...that makes me 42ish).  At first I liked him because I had a lot in common with him....he liked jelly beans and so did I.  And his birthday was February 6th, and so was mine. That was really all it took to sell this first grader.  As I grew up, I learned more about what he did for our nation and I just felt safe (remember the nuclear scare? I do).  Four presidents later, I appreciate him even more.  I remember where I was when he was shot and how the nation reacted.  I was a young girl, but I was a patriot and a huge fan of this great man.
  

This rest of what I think made my childhood great are a series of things that have to do with entertainment.  I feel like I need to start by saying that we lived rurally, so we didn't have cable, close neighbors, internet (Al Gore hadn't invented it yet) or video games.  We had three channels on the television (with an antenna on the roof), no remote control, a party line (now we have Facebook to find out what our neighbors are doing) and power outages.  I have to mention this because I think this is really what made the next bullets great.  We had to come up with our own excitement, not follow someone else's.  

• Hot summer days (since it's been 100+ lately) have been on my mind.  How did we stay cool? We only had a swamp cooler in our house so being inside wasn't necessarily the best option. When we were really little, we had a kiddie pool that we would get in and sprinklers to run in once in a while.  When we got older and it was DESPERATELY HOT out we got our swim suits on and got in the cow watering trough.  Ewww, I know!  We didn't stick our heads in but we sure did cool off.  

  

  What happened to that canoe????

• We built a fort.......ok, really my brother built the fort.  He built it with cinder blocks and my sister would do the decorating.  We loved to play Little House on the Prairie (at least I did....I won't implicate my siblings) and pretend to cook in our kitchen.  My big brother was probably out on his Kawasaki looking for ground squirrels and rattlesnakes to hunt.

This picture of the original house was taken when my brother was a baby.  The cinder blocks in the left corner would eventually be the fort he built for us.

• Agate hunting on evening walks is another great memory.  We found some beautiful rocks! My parents had a rock polisher with a huge collection of agates.  We took this hunt pretty seriously! The old Bombing Range Road had some real gems.  For some reason, agate hunting is still in my blood. Gravel roads bring it out in me and I'm still searching for the most beautiful rock a little girl can find!

Can you find the agate?????

• 
  

• We played dress up with our cats.  They LOVED IT!  I'm sure of that!  This never stopped being fun and I have lots of pictures of dressed up cats to prove it.  

  

  Look how much fun this kitty is having!

• We had parades.  I especially remember the time my dad hooked up the tractor and trailer.  My sister and I road down our gravel road in our swim suits and sashes on our hay filled "float". What fun!  We were only waving at sagebrush and loved every minute of it!

  

  My big sister and I (that haircut was supposed to look like Dorothy Hamel - that's for another blog post)

There are plenty more good memories that I could share.  I had an awesome little pink Barbie Jeep (not the kind I fit in, but my Barbies did) that I would make mud and go off road in. I wasn't afraid to get dirty.  Accidents with horses, pitch forks, and needing tetanus shots regularly.  But I find long blog posts are not my thing.  

I watch my boys at these ages and think about all those memories.  I want to offer them the same opportunities that I had.  They are doing some of the same things.....building forts and designing plans for a bigger one, torturing kittens and agate hunting has been passed down somewhat (although gravel roads are a little harder to find).  Good times and good memories of a life that has been blessed.

Fort Thompson 2015