It's Been A Long, Short Time

This photo appears to be that of a sweet, darling little girl.  All blonde ringlets, bow in her hair, smiling sweetly.

This photo appears the same.  Blonde ringlets, bow in hair, pretty little gold locket from her Grandma for her 6th birthday.

This photo years later, shows a pensive sort of young woman.

Strange how photos can cast a person into something they are not!

Under that exterior, was a real, live Tom-Boy.  

I spent most of my young life in dresses, but most of the time, those dresses hung over my head as I swung, upside down,  from a tree limb or Monkey-Bars, or did cart-wheels across the school playground.  Apparently there was some concern as my mother made me wear TWO pairs of underpants.  Cotton underneath and a nice nylon pair over those.

She had tried to explain that "nice little girls" didn't hang upside down or do cart-wheels in a dress and let "their underwear show", but when that failed, she went practical.

Once that little girl and even that young lady in her Senior Prom dress got away from the photographer, she was running free!  Climbing up on the barn roof. Climbing trees.  Swinging from the rope in the top of the barn to sail out and drop into the hay mound.  

Crawling along the ditches, pretending she was escaping Nazi soldiers, with her three little kids crawling along with her in a game of Combat.  The rule: if the neighbor's dog spotted us and barked, we were caught and the game was over.

Showing her three little kids how to lasso a post, and then ride fast on their bikes in a game of Rawhide.  Showing them how to grab on to the lowest limb and climb up into the top of a Maple tree.

Oh Lord help us!  She just has never grown up!

Just yesterday, she was hiding behind her big Maple tree out in front, so she could jump out and scare her friend John as he walked by.  Pointing her right index finger at him and yelling, "Bang.  Gotcha.  You're dead!"  Scared him good too!

Yesterday was a special day.  The first Day of Summer.  The Longest Day of the Year with 15 hours of daylight, a day half-way between Christmas....and her birthday!
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Where have the years gone?  I pondered on that yesterday.  I remember them all so well.

My Mother taught me to howl at a full moon.  We'd go outside, stand on the back porch and let out a good wolf howl.  I remembered me doing the same thing.  My three kids standing there with me.  Me the Momma Wolf, they the little cubs, all trying to howl as loud as I did.

Pammie called me early yesterday to wish me a Happy Day and tell me she had to work last night so she would miss our supper together.  Then she asked, "Momma, did you see that big full moon last night?"

"I sure did!"

"Did you go out and howl at it?"

"I sure did!  Did you?"

"I sure did!  You taught me well.  Last month, as I was walking out of work with some of my friends, the moon was full and I let out with a howl and they just looked at me and shook their heads."

"I get that a lot of that, Pammie.  People looking at me and shaking their heads."

Like Mother like Daughter.  Some traditions just carry on down through the generations.  
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After I scared John, he and Maizey came up for a porch chat and so I could give Maizey her Cheerios treat.

About an hour later, my sister and Chuck came down and stopped in.  Chuck disconnected the water tube from the refrigerator ice maker.  The people delivering my new fridge on Friday, told me the ice maker had to be disconnected because, "We are only delivering and setting up.  We don't disconnect anything. It has to be done before we get there."  Lah Dee Dah!

Pearl painfully walked all the way down for a porch chat, which was going nicely until Dar walked up.  Then the conversation was all about her and her Dad.  I kept trying to turn the conversation back to something we could ALL join in on, but...........

It is just weird how she does that.  Pearl or I could ask her a question or a comment, totally unrelated to her, and she manages to not really address the comment, but go off on a tangent that involves only her and off she goes.

She finally left and as Pearl was getting up to leave she said, "That woman is weird!"

"Ain't that the truth," I replied.
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Half an hour later, Karen pulled up to pick me up.  She had my oldest (pregnant) Grand Girl Helene with her.  I thought Madeleine was coming too, because I thought she was home from Guatemala, but...it seems her two week vacation there has turned into a month long one.  (That girl is so obsessed with Guatemala!  Why can't she get obsessed with Appalachia or somewhere here in the States?  We have so many people that need houses built and help right here in our own back yard.  I kept my thoughts to myself.)

Karen said, "Jennifer is in town.  She is meeting us at the Grand River Grill.  She said you liked it there."

I hate that place, but I kept my mouth shut!

We got there and got set down and were talking and then I saw Jennifer walk in the door.  I jumped up, ran over and just grabbed her into my arms.  Hugs and kisses and "I love you's".

Gosh!  It was a wonderful time.  They came back here for another hour after supper and we just talked and talked and laughed.  Planned a baby shower in September for Helene, talked about my son Mark and how he is doing.  The 4 siblings had just spent Father's Day weekend  up north together.

"Mom," said Karen, "when we siblings get together...it's like all the years just slip away and we are like we were when we were kids.  We all stood outside and howled at the moon Sunday night!"

Warms the cockles of my heart!

Where have the years gone?

by age:  Helene, Jennifer, Karen, Moi