One Word At A Time Blog Carnival...Summer
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The summer I was 9 years old, we moved to a magical place. We rented a house which was part of a defunct Ohio river Lock complex. The property covered many acres and included 2 houses used by the lock keepers and the powerhouse which contained the lock operating machinery.
My brother and I were in our glory... my sister ... not so much. There were 3 places forbidden to us by our parents, the 3 we gravitated to the most. My brother and I explored the power house, endlessly climbing on the huge rusty machines. We climbed the water tower and almost sent our pregnant mother into premature labor. The one place we stayed away from was the large, very deep pond.
I imagined myself as the Princess of all I surveyed. I spent endless hours reading in the crook of branches of a massive oak tree. Gone With The Wind and Wuthering Heights were 2 of my choices. I would climb up to my perch with a cheese sandwich, some fruit, a Mason jar full of ice water and a book to arrange myself in a princessy pose. Drama Queen then and now.
Because of the old lock, there were 3 sets of concrete steps leading down to the river. We cleared away the overgrown honeysuckle vines to get access to the concrete area which extended into the river.
We waded and paddled around to our hearts' content.
Sunburned evenings were spent eating dinner and watching the sunset over the river from the swing on the back porch while smelling the fragrance of honeysuckle.
I grew tomatoes and radishes and ate them fresh from the garden. Wiped the dirt off the radishes on my shorts. The tomatoes were eaten warm from their vines with a salt shaker in my other hand. Wild blackberries were dessert.
Lightning bug hunts, chases through an adjacent corn field. Exploration of a very old small cemetery on the property. It could not possibly have gotten any better...but it did !
On August 9th Grandma came to visit. Daddy came home from work early. Just after dinner Grandma interrupted our game of Scrabble by yelling out the door for us to " go to the pond and catch frogs ". If Grandma told you to do something, you did it...forbidden or not !
Within a few minutes, daddy and mother raced past us in our old ' 49 Ford leaving a cloud of dust as far as we could see along the mile long gravel lane to the "hard road". We hightailed it for home, and learned mother had gone into labor.
Five days later I held my baby sister Martha for the first time. The rest of my perfect summer was spent meeting her every need.
We have a bond that has remained strong and has only deepened throughout our shared troubles and triumphs these past 57 years. I thank God for the memories and the special gift of...
THE "BESTEST" SUMMER EVER.......1953.......
I still have that porch swing. Now I do my reading there. It is a lot more comfortable than the oak tree and I drink sweet tea from my Mason jar. I am 66... the porch swing is 110...
