We lived a lot of different places when I was growing up. One place, in my earliest memory, is now a doctors office but it was a really neat house, at least as I remember. It was strategically located near Magic Valley Memorial Hospital and a host of brick Doctors offices. It was a great place to play once the offices were closed and we would often ride our bikes around (well, I would ride in the basket or on the handlebars of Pennys bike) and we would pretend that the portico of a particular office was our house. We almost took up a whole block with the 4 of us playing house and pretending to ride over to visit each other. I remember a couple little weird things about that time. One, I was on the handlebars of Penny's bike and got my toe stuck in the spokes of her tire, at my recall, it seems like my toe almost got torn off but thats not really what happened, it just got cut pretty good. Two, we were riding our bikes at dusk, just driving around all the little streets that surrounded that little block of Dr. offices, within sight of our house and a carload of guys came into the block. I might not remember this exactly because I was pretty young but this carload started following us, Penny on her bike in particular, and scared us to death. We were able to make it home safely but it was sure scary!
Our make believe houses (ie. Dr.'s offices)
The front of the house now Dr. office.
Me in front of the house...I have a pic of me in front of this house, sitting in the flower bed in a red dress. I am only about 5 years old in it.
Another example of us playing house is in our other home, the last one we lived in in Twin Falls. It was a cute cinder block bungalow type house set back from the street with a huge front yard. We spent many many fun hours playing outside in that front yard doing a whole host of things and coming up with all kinds of inventive ways to pass the time for the day. The irrigation ditch along the fringe of the yard would give us many hours of great fun on the days when our yard was flooded and at night the huge worms (nightcrawlers) would come up and "swim" in the yard. Once we went around and got a bunch of them, and being enterprising young women, we were gonna sell them to the copious amounts of fishermen who went by our house! Nope, mom made us get rid of them..... One thing that I loved to do with my sisters was make houses in the yard. We would go around and pick up sticks or during the fall, rake the leaves into straight lines and boxes that resembled walls (that is if you looked at it from above) and we would "build" our houses complete with bedrooms (beds of leaves), kitchens, living rooms and bathrooms. It was great fun. I remember walking around that yard and laying on the "bed" in my house and things like that. What creativity we displayed. I have often wondered what someone who was watching us might have thought if they couldn't see our lines or know what we were doing. It must have been pretty comical or strange, depending on your point of view.
The giant front lawn we played in as children.
another shot. I loved this house. Many happy times were had here.
This was taken on our trip to Nebraska this summer. I love these women so much!
One more note I wanna make and yes, its kinda personal but as I sometimes stroll down memory lane I am so impressed with how much my sister Penny is prevalent. She is such a huge part of my life and was such a stable influence for both Connie and I as children. Many times we would go to Twin and then Boise and stay with her for weeks at a time. We had loads of fun, lots of great memories and always looked forward to spending time with her. As I think about my childhood, I remember her as a great big part of what kept me sane and enjoying life. My summers were spent with her, swimming, laughing, drinking soda, walking to the bowling alley, getting a chameleon, going to the pet store or gardening store, laying out in the sun, picnicing at the lake, doing all sorts of spontaneous things. I was not aware, at the time, of the sacrifice she made for Connie and I each summer. Money was not in huge abundance for them but she always managed to provide fun and good times. I want to thank her from the bottom of my heart for all the times she put us first and for a few weeks each summer, we were special. Thank you Penny. I am so glad we found our way back to each other, improved, wiser, and humbler than ever before. You are and have been a wonderful sister and I am so grateful for you!
1 comment:
Oh Lucy you make me cry! It is funny I never really thought about wether we had money or not. We always seem to make it work. We were not going to church at that time but I still prayed every day. That is what got us through. That is how we always had so very much even when it did not seem so. You and Connie are so very much a part of my world. I hate that we were apart for so long. I love you and miss you and so glad you are my sister.
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