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I remember when I was just a kid, one of my favorite things to do was come to this farm. Throughout my childhood I lived for the times of utter freedom that I felt when I got to come here to visit. My memories are full of different adventures from those days gone by.
A common thread to all these memories was my Grandma and Grandpa. They were good at making all us kids feel as though we were the greatest grandchild in the world. Each time we came to visit, we knew they’d love us up real good. I can remember sitting outside on hot summer evenings, with Grandpa and Grandma sitting around visiting with all their kids. All us grandkids would be running around the yard chasing lightning bugs, and playing games like Red Rover, Crack the Whip, Hide and Seek, and Tag. Or, sometimes we would just grab a handful of weeping willow branches and see who could swing the best. Often times we would all start singing old gospel songs while waiting for the homemade ice cream to finish getting cranked out. That was back during a time when families seemed to want to take time to spend together.
During these wonderful family gatherings I can recall late nights when the grownups would all be around the table playing games like Spoons, Rummy, Yahtzee, and WaHoo. The old farm house would be filled with laughter and lively talk. Sometimes they would even get the record player going and clear the furniture off the front room floor so everyone could dance. When it came time to bed down for the night us kids usually always picked a spot on the floor to make a pallet to sleep on. Grandma always said there was room for everyone as long as she had floor space.
Many mornings as I peered through dusty window panes looking for the first hint of morning, I would hear my Grandpa moving around in the kitchen. When he’d see me peeking around the corner he’d just smile and say: “Come on in here Sissy, I heard you movin’ about in the other room. You’re just waiting on that old sun to wake up so you can go catch that horse to ride aren’t cha?“. I’d always scurry in and we’d just sit and talk while we waited for daylight. I never realized at the time, how precious those moments of memory would become to me.
When I grew up Grandma often wrote me letters just to tell me she loved me and that she prayed for me. I have many of those letters to this day. From time to time I dig them out and read them again. They always fill my heart with love like a warm hug, and it is as if I can close my eyes and fill her arms wrap around me once more.
Grandpa passed away shortly after my oldest son was born. He always seemed bigger than life to me, and I missed him terribly when he passed. I always saw him as a hero as he had fought in the war. Military service was something the men of my dad’s family had always done. I remember my dad always saying how it would turn a boy into a man if he’d let it. I guess it is no wonder that I married a military man when I got older.
Grandma left us to go be with Jesus in July of 1990, and although they are both gone, sometimes I still feel the essence of those two very special people who first moved here so many years ago. It is my husband and I who now live on this farm. We are the third generation of this family to call it home.
Life has a way of traveling full circle. Now my husband and I are Grandma and Grandpa. It is our kids who come over to visit and our grandkids are the ones running around outside now. My prayer is that they will play games like Red Rover, Hide and Seek, Crack the Whip, and Tag too.
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