Old is as old as your mind feels, old is as old as your face and body look, old is as weary as your body feels and old will show in your eyes. Where it won't show is in your smile. No matter how old a person gets a smile can melt away the years when someone looks at it. Now at almost 71 everything adds up to old but trying to smile seems to take away the years. Even if I have to dip back to the young at life and young at heart, search for a memory that makes me smile or feel deep down good in my heart. The older I get the more dipping back comes into play. The older most of us get is when we start looking back thinking those were the good old days and times. They were, but.........every generation goes through the same feelings. It is called.....yes....getting old. Don't get me wrong, I am not setting here thinking it is the end because it is just the beginning. The beginning of a new chapter to what will be. If we are blessed there will be many chapters to start and hopefully finish. A saying that I have never liked, life is too short to....... To what? Never quite figured out how much time is needed and I doubt anyone else has. They may say the quote and finish it with what they believe. Everyone has a different end to that saying. I just can't come up with one for me.
Time and days continue to go at Cook'n by the Creek. Every new blossom is a time each plant is ready for. It is time for our lilies to bloom and wow are they gorgeous this year. We have pink and white, orange and a deep deep red. How do you like that for telling what type they are? Never keep the tag, we buy, plant and watch them bloom year after year. As each one opens we announce the red lily is blooming or pink and white or orange. The prettiest flowers that blossom around here will end with the lilies. The others are nice just lack the wow to me.
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Our temperatures are way to hot for us to enjoy the outdoors. During the day we dash out for a quick chore, then back to the air conditioning. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate ac? Well I do! It means it is above 80 and that is too hot for us. Have I ever mentioned how much I love winter and snow? Of course I have. Give me a warm toasty house for baking and winter soups. A walk in the crisp air or snow shoeing, roasting hot dogs and a thermos of coffee. Those days that light my candle, float my boat or whatever the saying. Not hard to figure out what memories I am pulling up to put that smile on my face. It's only July 4th, little early to be thinking about winter. Canning and freezing the harvest comes next. Never wish time away Cheryle Anne Gross as my mom would tell me. Always wishing for something down the road a little farther. The road ends here.
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| Sandy Bottom |
Let's pull up a summer memory of growing up around Shinglehouse in the 1960s. Teens, what do you do? Ride bikes, hike, picnics or go to the local swimming hole in the Oswayo Creek. The creek looks much smaller than when I grew up on the farm with the Oswayo flowing through. If you graduated from our school you will remember the line in our Alma Mater, The Oswayo Flows. I don't want to leave out the carnival that came to town every summer. It seemed huge to me and filled the Fire Hall parking lot. That was a time to see many people from our area. Sandy Bottom or Ten Foot, yep that is where it was happening during the summer for us teens. All was nice until the boys decided to pull you in, dunk you or chase you with a mud dog. Those mud dogs were slimy nasty looking things that lived in the creek banks and swam in the water. They were not easy to catch but when one was it was game on. Girls screaming, running, begging and boys chasing, laughing with that mean laugh and wouldn't give up until a girl ended up getting one thrown at her. What fun, nightmare material but young innocent fun. It was like magic, everyone knew when it was time to head home, long before supper and dark. There was a rope that usually boys only would swing from. I look back now and know why the girls were there, not to swim but to watch the boys. They were darn skinny but cute as heck! We knew everyone and where everyone lived. I think I would be pretty accurate in going up and down the streets and naming who lived where. Most of the family names that had been there since I can remember. Now I barely know the names of people in Shinglehouse. A few old name brands but not many. Life was good on those shady cool streets, no worries on something bad happening, all parents kept a close watch on all the kids.
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| This is what Sandy Bottom looks like now. Hard to believe it was much deeper and wider when we swam there. No shrubs or brush along the banks either. Only a few large trees and one that had the rope to swing from. Sad little stream now hardly deep enough to wade in. |
This is the bank we would set on and lay in the sun. Trust me it was a wide open space way back in 1960 something.
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| New bridge and new guard rails. I guess I will have to dig in my box of "old" pictures for a picture of the old bridge. |
As I am typing my grandson's wife just sent me a picture of an apple pie he baked today from scratch. It looks beautiful and the best part is he said, he got his gramma's genes! Yes he did. How do I know for sure? Because he is as particular about mowing his lawn as I am. We discovered that a couple weeks ago! Gage and Sammy live in Illinois and will have a baby daughter in July around my birthday! It is tough living so far apart but knowing they are happy, healthy and starting a family makes the miles melt away.
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| If we could drive to Illinois for a piece of pie and a few hugs! |
