Memories That Make You Go...Ahhhh...

While replying to an e-mail I was reminded of some wonderful memories from my childhood of the simpler ways of life...and a simpler time in my own life...childhood. Here are some of my favorite memories. I would LOVE to know some of yours...

~~My mom is the baby of 14 children (and I’m the 52nd of 52 grandchildren!) and her 2nd-oldest sister was the only one who never left the foothills and “hollers” of VERY RURAL east/central KY. I LOVED going to their house!! It was like visiting Laura Ingalls Wilder. My uncle built their little house (with the steps that went right into the wall…you had to almost jump either right or left into the room you wanted to go into) and raised 11 kids there. She didn’t have electricity until I was in grade school in the mid-60’s, or in-door plumbing until the mid-80’s – about 6 years before she died – and she still cooked on a huge black coal/wood-burning stove! There was NOTHING like her biscuits! They were as big as her saucers and were meals in themselves. Especially w/honey from their own hives.

~~This same uncle taught me how to milk cows by hand. When we would visit I'd go out to the barn with him every morning. He would always have me be very quiet and we would almost 'sneak' in...then he would quietly give me one of the buckes while he took another. He would signal "1...2...3" with his fingers and on "3" we would start shaking the buckets and CATS would absolutely EXPLODE out of every crevice of the barn! lol He would then squirt the cats in the face while he milked...that's what they were waiting for!

~~My gr-parents' back porch went right out onto a foothill that was COVERED in raspberry briars. My gr-pa and I would go out and pick quart baskets FULL and then we would go out to the front porch. I'd sit on his lap while he pretended to be a baby bird - opening his mouth up as wide as he could - and I would be the mommy bird and feed him. Hmmm...I think Gr-pa got the better end of the deal!

~~Sitting on the floor in front of my "Bigmom's" rocker and listening to her tell wonderful, funny stories about her childhood.

~~Summers at another uncle's house riding horses FOREVER!

~~Picking strawberries in a local patch (2 for the basket, 1 for me!) and then going home to pour them into a HUGE tub and picking off the stems late into the summer evening on our back porch. Lighting lanterns to work by and watching the fire-flies, owls and bats come out while the crickets and tree frogs sang to us.

~~Can't forget those wonderful summer nights with the windows open and the crickets and tree frogs singing me to sleep.

What about you?

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><