| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Prairie Flower |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 07:51:23 AM
I just turned 57 this year. I don't feel like I am old, but I am not young either. It has been 15 years since I have been to Alaska. I have not been back home and I still want to go at least one more time. If I could go I would want to take all 18 of my immediate family with me. I would show them all the things I did growing up homesteading with my parents and siblings in Alaska. I would have them all walk the road I used to walk every Sat. and we would walk to the glacier and sit at the counter and eat chili with oyster crackers. We would then climb the mountain behind the glacier and look out at Auke Lake where as a child my family would go ice skating. In the evening we would build a big fire in the middle of the lake for light and I would teach all 9 of my grandchildren how to ice skate. The next day we would drive out to Eagle River and have a picnic on the beach and look out at the ocean. Then all of us would get into a big boat and go salmon fishing , so they could possible see a big whale like I did as a child. Maybe it would bump our boat to tell us that he new we were there. I wasn't scared then, but I sure think I would be now. I would still want my children to see a whale though. We would go out into the fields and pick a huge bouquet of lupins, Alaska cotton and fireweed, (maybe that is why I love flowers, we had lots of beautiful wild flowers in Alaska). We couldn't miss getting a large coffee can with rope tied on each side just like my Gramma did for me and then go to the woods to pick a million blueberries. I would love to see the blueberry stains on my babies faces!!!! I would show them lots more things like, have them swing in the highest swing my daddy made for me, so they could touch the sky, we would go on the beach and lift rocks to find the little sea animals, fish on the side of the dock for herring and come back and cook it on an open fire, we would gather tadpoles from other lakes and bring them back to the pond my Grandpa gave me, walk in the rain by the Governors' Mansion and pull at the trees to bring down a ton of rain on us and so many other things. Before we left we would all have to go on a huge ferry ship (like I did all the time growing up), we would all sleep on the sleeping deck snuggled in sleeping bags and we would look up in the sky and see the big dipper (seen on the Alaskan flag), the Aurora Borealis and the Milky Way, way up in the sky doing their Alaskan dance. I would relive with my family all the wonderful memories I had living in Alaska. It is my dream and I have it in my mind and I trust that one day I can have it in real life.
I am a huge memory maker with my children and grandchildren. I didn't have the easiest upbringing, but I guess I choose to keep the good memories in my mind. I think that is why my husband and I have so many Grammie and Poppa Camps with all of our grandchildren. So that they will one day want to come to the farm and bring their little ones and walk their children through some of their childhood memories that they had growing up here on our farm.
These are just a few of my memories. I would so love to hear a memory you would want to relive with your family or maybe just a dream that you have.
Blessings, Linda
Enter and leave with a happy heart!
http://prairieflowerfarm.blogspot.com/
http://peacecreekcollectionsstore.blogspot.com/ |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Prairie Flower |
Posted - Sep 03 2009 : 3:44:18 PM
All of your memory stories are all so wonderful. I have enjoyed reading everyone! They made me think of even more ideas that I would like to do with my family. Steak dinners Anna! Wow! Num! Going to Australia? I want to go.
I am sorry Robin that your family is not still with you. I can see why you would want your husband and son to be with them. That made me so sad.
Dawn those memories were wonderful. You were blessed to have such wonderful grandparents. white spiders. Yuk!!! made me laugh though.
Shirley Jean, so nice you have a grand daughter to love on. You are an example to us to go tend to her need first... smile!
Karin your memory was wonderful and that you will do the same your grandma did for you for your grandchildren is great. It doesn't have to stop does it.
Teresa, How sweet that you also cried. I did to when i started to write my memories. I thought of my Dad building my swing. It just got me. IT is good to think
back on those times though.
Thank you so much ladies for letting me be a part of your memories. I feel like I am getting to know you all a little better.
blessings to you all, Linda
http://prairieflowerfarm.blogspot.com/
http://peacecreekcollectionsstore.blogspot.com/
Enter and leave with a happy heart! |
| Annab |
Posted - Sep 03 2009 : 03:27:07 AM
Ohhh let's see
One of the best was when the 4 of us went to Australia for a month back in the 90's. We all still talk about the stores still
Another would have to be summers on my uncle's farm
and I'd also have to say steak dinners after church the 4 of us or going out to eat with our closest friends to Rax. Those times were the apitome (SP) of your typical sunday afternoon in suburbia |
| dutchy |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 11:51:00 PM
THAT is why I blog. I write memories down just to remember :)
Hugs from Marian/Dutchy, a farmgirl from the Netherlands :)
My personal blog:
http://just-me-a-dutch-girl.blogspot.com/
Almost daily updates on me and mine :)
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| Roxy7 |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 9:27:28 PM
If I could take my husband and son with me, I would like to go back to a time when my mom and dad and brother were still alive and just spend time with them. |
| deeredawn |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 5:12:22 PM
YES! I remember Grandpa naming all his cows. And if he knew one was going to slaughter, he wouldn't eat it. I remember in the winters, they'd put a five gallon bucket in a wooden box that had a cut out seat. You'd lift the hinged lid, go potty, add a cup of lime and close the lid. Woe to the person who did not shut that box's lid! My grandma gave me baths in that back kitchen sink. It was the heavy enamel kind. The house is falling down today but I bet that sink is still there. Also, the house was heated by charcoal. I remember one spring going to the cellar to "help" my Aunt shovel coal into the furnace and there were all these bright white spiders on the ceiling. It was so weird. I'm sure there was an explanation to it, but I can't remember now. I remember fighting for a register to stand on and warm up too! I'm 38 years old. Born in 1970 and that's how I lived most of my childhood life.
Girls: these are precious memories. Journal them! NOW whiel you remember! lol!
Dawn #279
MJ's Heirloom Mavens-QMD
http://harvestthyme.blogspot.com
http://maknfaces.blogspot.com
~I'm rough & tough and I don't wear bloomers~ Nellie Braken 1887 |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 10:14:53 AM
Great topic, and you all have some wonderful memories! For me, of course, it is the farm in Iowa that belonged to my dad's parents. I have talked about that here until I am sure you are all tired of hearing it! The milkcans banging around at 5:00 in the morning, and me getting my jeans on quick so I could run and help. Driving the tractor forward and backward while we hefted bales of hay into the mow. Scaring the pigs by throwing cobs at them, and having a cow named after me. Singing in the silo to hear the echo. Sweet corn right out of the house garden. Going to town in the pick-up to get root beer flosts. The quiet is what I loved most even then. Will write more later, because here comes one of my own granddaughters, wanting to do arts and crafts and make cards together. Gotta go and make a memory!
So many of those years and those kind of memories will never come again for the young folks of today. It makes me so sad. That is part of why I like it so much here on this site.
Farmgirl Sister # 31
www.blueskyjeannie.blogspot.com
Psalm 51: 10-13 |
| Mumof3 |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 09:59:38 AM
What a fabulous topic! Mine would be summers at my grandparent's house. That seems to be a running theme here. :) I wish that my children could have seen that house with the restaurant and barn attached. It was an adventure every single time. From playing "restaurant" where my grandmother served up lunch and dinner to hungry neighbors on the weekends, to exploring the barn where all of the props from the Christmas parade grammy organized were kept. Her attic was a spooky place, mostly because it was very small and very dark and you had to pass by the "scary chair" to get there. My kids missed out on that sort of experience becasue my parents didn't allow for exploration. It's too bad because we always learned something from the things we discovered- how they were made, how they worked, why they were kept.
When I have grandchildren, I will definitely encourage them to poke about and discover things on their own. I guess I'd better stop clearing things out and leave some things for them to do just that!
Karin
Farmgirl Sister
# 18 :)
www.perfectlittlemiracle.blogspot.com
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| 1badmamawolf |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 09:45:23 AM
You girls brought tears to my eyes, I miss my Grandparents something awful. Going to their farm and helping Grandpa milk, ( this is where my love of Swiss Browns came from), having all the barn cats crowd in for a squirt, climbing into the hay loft in that cow barn and jumping into a pile of straw. Riding the draft mules back in from the fields at the end of the day. Gathering the eggs with Grandma, her beating off that mean old rooster that chased me. Picking green beans for supper and remembering the smells of those beans cooking with some bacon fat in them. Climbing up in that big old Missouri Oak in the front of the house, and watching the hawks floating by. These are memories, ( just some of many wonderful memories) that I wish my children, and my childrens children could have seen, even thou they have their own memories.
"Treat the earth well, it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children" |
| dutchy |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 08:56:36 AM
I would LOVE to spend my vacations at my grandmommy and granddaddy again. Those were my happiest times. Everything was possible, Grandmommy played along with me whatever I invented. She was the sweetest one around. Granddaddy told stories about his years as a captain on a ship. BIG stories, funny and scary.
Their house was small and old, but OH the smells. I loved smelling the cupboard in the front room, it smelled like moth balls lol. I loved that smell and every time I see mothballs I think of that time in the front room. Reading the books they had in a little glass cabinet where only grammy's teaspoon fitted, they had lost the key long ago and that spoon fitted right in the lock.
They weren't rich but whenever we came over they had bought "my" special cheese, my special sausage and cookies. Still love those cookies, AND I have the cookietin they were always in :)
Grandmommy was a good cook, nothing fancy but just wholesome meals. She made them on a special cooker, they didn't have gas because she was afraid of that new fangled thing lol. So they used a cooker and the meat she made, mmmm melted on your tongue :)
She told us stories of when she was a young girl and how she and granddaddy met, lol. She was 2 yrs older but she never told him! He only found out on their wedding day :) She just stared ahead of her as if nothing was wrong and granddaddy always laughed out loud whenever they told that story. He said: "she was a good one and I didn't wanna loose her, even if I had known she was an old lady " lol. They were in love from the moment he set eyes on her, and they were in love till grandmommy passed away. And he still loved her till the day he died a few years later.
Thanks for letting me think about them again. They are often in my thoughts and I still miss them after some 35 (grandmommy) and 32 (granddaddy) yrs after they passed away.
Hugs from Marian/Dutchy, a farmgirl from the Netherlands :)
My personal blog:
http://just-me-a-dutch-girl.blogspot.com/
Almost daily updates on me and mine :)
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| Prairie Flower |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 08:31:39 AM
quote:
Originally posted by deeredawn
Great topic Linda!
I would love to bring back Sunday dinners at my Grandma's house. I fondly remember everyone in the family meeting up at the farm for dinner. Its the only time I remember the grown up having as much fun as the kids. My uncle would give us airplane rides until we were so dizzy we couldn't walk. My uncles used to grab my arms and legs and "stretch" me, saying it'd make me taller. (I was a shorty then and still am). We'd always have something yummy that Grandma made: pot roast, potatoes, and dessert. I remember not liking her apple dumplings as a kid, but now I'd give anything to have one or two! After dinner my mom and aunts would saddle up the horses and we'd all take turns riding around the farmhouse. Sometimes, we'd all walk down the lane to the woods and us kids would show off our 'stunts' on fallen trees and big rocks in the creek. More than once those stunts ended up with someone bawling or a wet bottom! I remember sitting on the side porch with my Grandpa (I was Grandpa's girl) and he'd show us how to catch a barn kitty.....by it's handle (aka tail). Or my grandpa would tell us to pick a weed and place it on the electric fence and we'd feel a 'tickle". Ha, tickle my eye! He'd eventually have all of us kids crying because we got shocked. Mom's and Dad's alike would just say "you know better than to believe anything Grandpa has to say!". Most kids these days would be traumatized over that stuff, but it's made me a better person. My Grandma's house had no indoor plumbing so the dish water had to be hand pumped in the back kitchen. We had an outhouse. She washed clothes in a double sided tub with a wringer on it. Playing on the combines and getting chased off by a swarm of bees, having the old swing on that big elm in front of the house. The outside water pump that we'd work so hard for a cool drink of water. I had to jump up and use my body weight to get that darn water to come out.
thank you Linda for making my day better by allowing me to remember those Sundays. Everything was golden back then.
Dawn #279
MJ's Heirloom Mavens-QMD
http://harvestthyme.blogspot.com
http://maknfaces.blogspot.com
~I'm rough & tough and I don't wear bloomers~ Nellie Braken 1887
Oh, Dawn you made my heart smile. I also went to my Grandma's house every Sat. morning. They built a huge 3 story log house. I remember the smell still to this day. She would make sour dough pancakes, waffles, swedish pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage or bacon. Anyone of those would thrill me also. Your memory is wonderful. The first house we lived in did not having running water, but my daddy put a hand pump in the kitchen for my momma. I also grew up with an outhouse as we were clearing land on our homestead. I would have a coffee can in my bedroom, so I didn't have to go out to the outhouse and be eaten by a bear. That is really true too. I lived by a huge mountain and creek by our house. I remember splashing and running with my girlfriends after a slumber party in our nightgowns. You made me think of more of my childhood memories with your wonderful memory story. Thank you also!
Enter and leave with a happy heart! |
| deeredawn |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 08:09:19 AM
Great topic Linda!
I would love to bring back Sunday dinners at my Grandma's house. I fondly remember everyone in the family meeting up at the farm for dinner. Its the only time I remember the grown up having as much fun as the kids. My uncle would give us airplane rides until we were so dizzy we couldn't walk. My uncles used to grab my arms and legs and "stretch" me, saying it'd make me taller. (I was a shorty then and still am). We'd always have something yummy that Grandma made: pot roast, potatoes, and dessert. I remember not liking her apple dumplings as a kid, but now I'd give anything to have one or two! After dinner my mom and aunts would saddle up the horses and we'd all take turns riding around the farmhouse. Sometimes, we'd all walk down the lane to the woods and us kids would show off our 'stunts' on fallen trees and big rocks in the creek. More than once those stunts ended up with someone bawling or a wet bottom! I remember sitting on the side porch with my Grandpa (I was Grandpa's girl) and he'd show us how to catch a barn kitty.....by it's handle (aka tail). Or my grandpa would tell us to pick a weed and place it on the electric fence and we'd feel a 'tickle". Ha, tickle my eye! He'd eventually have all of us kids crying because we got shocked. Mom's and Dad's alike would just say "you know better than to believe anything Grandpa has to say!". Most kids these days would be traumatized over that stuff, but it's made me a better person. My Grandma's house had no indoor plumbing so the dish water had to be hand pumped in the back kitchen. We had an outhouse. She washed clothes in a double sided tub with a wringer on it. Playing on the combines and getting chased off by a swarm of bees, having the old swing on that big elm in front of the house. The outside water pump that we'd work so hard for a cool drink of water. I had to jump up and use my body weight to get that darn water to come out.
thank you Linda for making my day better by allowing me to remember those Sundays. Everything was golden back then.
Dawn #279
MJ's Heirloom Mavens-QMD
http://harvestthyme.blogspot.com
http://maknfaces.blogspot.com
~I'm rough & tough and I don't wear bloomers~ Nellie Braken 1887 |
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