Childhood memories flood through my mind all the time. I grew up poor and out in the country for the most part. My mom and dad got divorced when I was in the 4th grade. Before they were divorced my mother had already moved us in with her then boyfriend, now husband. I hated him, I hated his house, I hate living in the country! I hated all of his hunting dogs....I just hated not living with my dad!
We lived in that house for only a few short months before moving and then moving again into the house that I would call my child hood home.
They moved us out to the middle of God's Green Creation to a ghost town called Bookwalter Nebraska. At one time it was a hopping little railroad town. By the time we moved in there Bookwalter consisted of a run down one room school house/church and the homestead house or Mr. & Mrs. Bookwalter. That was the house....the house that built me.
Our house was was a huge, yellow, square house. Full basement, first floor, up stairs and the attic. The house had several large picture windows. One family friend said it was always "neat" to pull into our drive way at a meal time because she could see straight in the dining room and see the 8 of us sitting around the table eating as a family. We had 4 doors that led outside, 3 on the main level and one that lead out onto the porch--for some reason. (Found memories of playing "stuck in the mud" tag on the roof. Of course no parents were at home or we wouldn't have been allowed to run around on the roof.)
It was a four bedroom house so of course I shared a bedroom with one of my sisters. We "traded" rooms often. It kept things more fun--I guess. So many memories of talking late into the night, windows open and a fresh summer breeze blowing in.
I sure do wish I had a digital camera back in those days. We had a 110 camera. A pink Le'Clic built in flash camera....but film and processing was expensive. We have some pictures from that time of my life but not of the memories I love the most. No pictures of.......
- endless miles of walking on the dirt roads that surrounded our house.
- of when my coon hound treed his first coon.
- of the run down one room school house that was up the road from our house. We loved exploring that little building.
- of the two ponds that we fished in and played fetch with our family Black Lab named Babe.
- Sleeping out on the front porch. That only happened once and I think I may have chickened out because I do not remember waking up outside.
- exploring the waterways that were close to our house. We would set out on a "hike" and spend hours outside. Sometimes we would pack a light picnic lunch to enjoy.
- the Christmas we cut down and drug a stinky evergreen tree home.
Growing up out there in the middle of no where we had to be creative. We had to love the siblings, after all there were no other kids that lived near us. In the summer we always had more things to do. We would split up and make two teams for a game of ball. Babe, the black lab always played outfielder for both teams. She helped us all win several games. When my oldest brother would be up to bat you could almost always count on the baseball or softball ending up in the middle of the field in what ever crop had been planted there. Good ol Babe would hunt through the crop and wouldn't give up until she found the ball.
We played cops and robbers. It didn't matter how old you were, you still played. One day my stepdad brought his dump truck home. I remember how he jumped out of that truck grabbed a gun and the handcuffs and arrested me. I had my hands behind my back and he led me to his dump truck. He locked one cuff around my wrist and the other to the side of the dump box. My siblings and Ed were all standing around laughing at me. Mom came out on the porch and yelled supper was ready. That was normal.....mom on the porch trying to round up all her offspring. My family all ran inside....leaving me hand cuffed to the dump truck. As I mentioned earlier, we had those large picture windows. I watched my family all sitting at the table, passing around food, skipping my spot. My mom finally realized I wasn't at the table and made my step dad come un-cuffed me. In today's world my step dad would have gone to jail for child abuse but back then and still to this day we all sure do laugh about that!
Remember that door that led to the roof...well that was the door that my brother, Wesley, used to pull one of the best pranks ever on my mother. He tossed a 5 gallon bucket up on the roof. Went upstairs and got the bucket, filled it with water and waited on the edge of the porch roof right above the steps that led into the kitchen, the door that we always used to get inside. His girlfriend called for my mom to come outside. Mom stuck her head out the door to see what Amy needed. Amy kept asking what kind of flowers mom had planted by the porch. Mom told her they were "Marigolds". Amy needed mom to get off the porch so she kept saying "No, this one!" Finally mom stepped out of the house and started off the porch. Wes dumped that entire bucket of water on mom's head! We laughed about it for days...well years because we still laugh about it today.
We were always pulling pranks on good ol mom. We kept her on her toes. The upstairs was a huge hallway with four bedrooms and a bathroom off the hallway. In the hallway was a large built in linen closet. It had big doors with several shelves inside. That's where we kept all of the towels and bedding. We discovered that my brother, John, could climb in the cabinet and shut the door. Mom was in her bedroom and either my sister or I asked mom to get us a towel as we stood at the sink washing our hands. She came out of her bedroom, opened the cabinet door and my brother scared the daylight out of her! Good thing she was young and healthy at the time....otherwise we could have killed her with a heart attack. She was not amused by being scared....but us kids thought it was the best prank ever...well of that summer!
I can hours of stories on this house and the memories made there...and I plan on it but for now, I need to wrap this blog up and get it posted.
