In the Summertime!

Today is a perfect summer day. It is warm and sunny with a light breeze blowing. The pool water is warm and we are hanging out on the patio. Lee and Jake are playing RISK, Lily the dog is laying stretched out asleep and I am just hangin. This reminds me of growing up. I have mentioned before that I grew up in Bright Indiana. When I lived there, it was really country. Many of the roads were gravel, the town consisted of three churches, a grave yard, two general stores, a gas station, firehouse and the grade school. Most of the land was farmed, and "sub divisions" didn't exist. Bright is very different today. Once Hidden Valley was developed in the 70's, there was a building boom in Bright. The roads are all paved, they have home pizza delivery and a Chinese place. There are many more businesses and restaurants than I ever imagined. However, the farmland is a thing of the past, and sub divisions are the norm.

When I was young there wasn't really anything to do in the summer. There weren't that many organized club sports, especially for girls. There weren't any malls to hang out at and no air conditioning. That left us to hang outside. You could look out and see the heat rise off the corn fields across the street. There was a small groove of trees with a creek across the road. I would spend hours over there, walking through the woods, imagining, and playing in the creek. That is where I found the frog eggs and brought them home. We put them in a container and watched them hatch.  The sounds and smells of summers past was very different. There would be the singing of birds, the rumble of a hay wagon, the crunch of the gravel on the road as the milk tank truck went back to pick up the Grubbs milk. Once every couple weeks the "grader" would come down the road and smooth out the gravel. This would cause a large dust cloud to settle all over the place. Mom would yell for us to shut the windows so the dust wouldn't get inside. The smells would vary from Spring to Fall. There was the sweet, clean smell of rain in the Spring. There was also the stinky smell of manure being spread to fertilize the fields. The summer would bring honey suckle and a yellow dusting of pollen from the tassels of the corn as we ran through the rows. At night we could hear the frogs and crickets and chased lighting bugs that seemed to be everywhere. We could see brown bats diving for bugs at our light outside. Greg and I would put a cloth over a rock and throw it up in the air to watch the bats dive for it. I have no idea what we thought we were doing. It just seemed right at the time. There would be the soft ground from the turned dirt in the garden. I loved running barefoot outside, I still do today. In the Fall, there was the smell of cut hay, and a crispness in the air. The garden was turned and put to bed for the winter and we would prepare for ice, snow and electric outages. We raised hogs, so we would have litters of piglets over the summer. Sometimes there would be a couple that were rejected by the sows and we would end up hand feeding them. We would ride our bikes up to Rencks store and buy ice cream, or go down to the grade school and play on the playground. It was a very different time. Today, as I sit in my backyard, watching my teenage son. There is a TV attached to the wall, a iPad on the table and his cell phone. I can hear the hum of the air conditioners and smell the grills being warmed up. I can still hear the birds and later on my yard will glow with fireflies. We will grill out and have a grand time. These are the memories Jake will have when he is older. Playing games on the patio, a sleeping dog, grilling out, warm pool water and he might even remember the birds and fireflies. Everyone remembers things differently. It's your own personal past. I hope that you have wonderful memories of summers past, and that you are making new memories this summer. Take care!

Happy Fathers Day!

Today is Fathers Day. My Dad is 81 and lives with me, so I get to see him every day. I'm very lucky to have a great Dad. The things I remember while growing up was sitting on the couch and Dad reading the comics to my brother and I on Sunday mornings. Dad making sure that when Mom was in the hospital, we stayed together as a family. Even though my Grandmother offered to keep me at her house.  Dad running around the yard holding on to my bike as I learned to ride. That led to my spending hours in the summer riding. Dad making a maze for my science project. I won first prize. Dad teaching me how to drive a stick shift. Dad walking me down the isle, on Fathers Day, 27 years ago. Dad coming to Guam and snorkeling even though he isn't a great swimmer. Dad coming to the Wal Mart parking lot with the truck when Lee and I bought a grill to big to fit in our car. Dad fixing EVERYTHING that needed to be fixed in our new house, and every place we have lived since. Dad holding my newborn son. Dad coming to every event my son and my nieces have been in. Dad teaching Lee and Jake how to fix things, sometimes. Dad going to the markets and craft shows to help me set up. Dad taking care of Lily, the new puppy, when no one else has time. She follows him around like a shadow. I have a great Dad. I hope that your Dad is still with you, and if not, I hope that you have wonderful memories of times together. By the way, I have a great Mom too! Take Care!

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday Lee and I celebrated our 27th anniversary. It is hard for me to believe that I have been married that long. The statistics today for married people doesn't look good. Most people are married at least twice in their life times. You never know. Look at Liz Taylor and Marie Osmond. Who would have thought Marie Osmond would be married three times! She even  followed Lizs lead and married one husband twice. I have a friend who has been married twice, to the same man. They took a year or two off early on the their marriage. How does one keep it all straight? If you marry the same guy twice, do you celebrate the first or second date? I need to ask. If you forget the first date can you make it up on the second? Do you just celebrate both? Hmmm, that sounds like a plan. Lees parent were married over 50 years before my father in law passed away and my parents have been married 60 years. You don't really hear about that much anymore. June 17,1984 was a long time ago. We were different people then. Lee was a medical student who wasn't sure what type of medicine he wanted to practice. I was in college and not sure what I wanted to do, so we got married. The Navy entered our lives in the form of a scholarship and Lee decided on OB/GYN. Off to Virginia we went, then over seas to Guam. Those experiences formed us in some ways. We traveled more than we ever thought we would. We were able to see Bali, Singapore, Saipan, Hong Kong, with stops in Japan and China. Not the type of vacations we really thought we would be doing. We learned to scuba dive and became independent of "the family". Moving away was scary, but I feel that is helped us grow together. To not rely on anyone else but each other. When the time came to decide where we wanted to go, Cincinnati was the obvious choice. Both our families were here, and when you think about it, what do you do for vacations when you live away from your family. You take vacation to visit family. We decided to live in Cincinnati, not vacation there. It has been good. There is always ups and downs in marriage, and in life. It's nice to have someone to take that ride with you, even if the road is bumpy. Sometimes thats the fun of it. Becoming parents in our late 30's also changed us. You look at things differently. We were more settled than if we had been able to have Jake in our late 20's. Yes, Lee and I have changed over the years. One thing hasn't, that is our humor. Our very odd sense of humor seems to have stayed the same over all these years. Maybe that's why we have made it so long. We are able to laugh, at each other and with each other. Love makes the world go round, but laughter keeps it together. Take care!