Thursday, September 13, 2007

Where I grew up

My brother recently sent me a couple of pictures that I thought I'd show ya'll.

This is the house where I grew up.



I loved the house, with plenty of room to roam both inside and out. It was built in the 1860's, had wide plank oak floors, 10 foot tall ceilings, and was freezing in our bedrooms in the winter.

The things we did back then.
- Swimming in the creek while wearing tennis shoes 'cause the mud was too icky for barefeet (and checking our legs later for leeches).
- Running up and down the old pig pen roofs--sometimes sliding on them.
- Walking out onto the barn roof while the men were working on it.
- Going barefoot all summer (except in the creek).
- Catching fireflies at dusk and putting them into a jar.
- Peeling off layers and layers and layers of old wallpaper, only to find that we had to redo the plaster anyway. (There was some absolutely hideous wallpaper.)
- Finding a cat and her kittens up on the rafters in the barn.

Here's a view from our house up the road to our neighbor's. We had to walk this road every day to catch the bus. For the most part, I would carry a couple of books (no backpacks for me), my purse, my flute, my lunch, and sometimes my gymbag. At the dark blob in the middle (pine trees), the road turns and you couldn't see the bus until you got to the next turn. I'd be running late, so would be running with all my stuff until the next turn.



People say that I live in the country now....and I say....not compared to where I grew up.

4 comments:

Nancy said...

I absolutely LOVE this posting. It's fascinating, especially the part about checking for leeches. Yuck! Seriously though, I did enjoy your memories and your interesting house.

HRH

valéria said...

I just love the place you lived and i can't imagnine how it was. I was born in a block of flats in a city. But i'm glad there were no leeches ;)

ps...my old blog is away and i'm starting a new one.

http://handigehanden.blogspot.com/
if you like you can find me here. I'll translate today when i'm having the time to do so.

Take care and great socks!!!

Alison said...

Me, growing up in the Maryland summertime meant running from the snake that was running from me--probably a harmless water snake there at the bank of Cabin John Creek over near the Potomac. But I never stopped to ask it if it was poisonous. And it didn't stop to ask me.

I love your picture of that house. The one I grew up in didn't look like that at all, but there sure were a lot of others around that did.

Re the can't respond to the blogger comment thing: I'm afraid that seems to be a feature of Blogger that comes with the no-anonymous-comments option.

--AlisonH at spindyeknit.com

Diane said...

Going barefoot and catching fireflies are two of the best childhood summer activities.

The worst part of summer? The end and having to put on leather shoes to go back to school which gave you blisters for the first week(back in the day before you could wear sneakers). Skirts and dresses worn and showing your knees scabbed from falling out of trees and off bikes all summer. Your parents tried to get you to feel better by getting you a new bookbag (in the days before backpacks) but the end of summer was always sad.