Yes, Those were the days...

I think at middle age...oh, around 45-46...somehwere in there, you begin to think back on years gone by. Not that life is ending...or maybe it is. We don't really know the answer to that one, now do we?
Sometimes I like to just think back...as I drive down the road, or while I sit in complete quiet, or while walking down the street...I like to talk to my children about the days that I remember.
Those days really do seem like yesterday.
They really do.
Sometimes the memories are vivid...sometimes cloudy...it's weird that way.
I've written some of those things down for my children to pass on...I've told many, many stories...to many people (thanks for enduring).
I like those memories. Some of them bring a smile, a tear, a giggle...some bring me heartache, some make me laugh out loud...LOL as we say these days.
........................

I remember driving all night (9 hours) and surprising my grandparents in the middle of the night. Not telling them we were coming...knowing they wouldn't mind.  Tapping on their bedroom window at 3:00am, saying "It's me Papa...I'm here!" Never one time was there any other response but pure delight. They'd grab their robe and run to meet us at the front screen door. We'd sit up and talk for awhile before drifting off to sleep...what unconditional love I felt.
Those hugs and tears of joy in the middle of the night were the best.

I remember the evening, at the end of a hot summer day; the day we were huddled together in the back yard for a late afternoon fishing game.
One last cast before dark.
Into the lake I threw that 9 inch green worm.
I reeled it in, ever so carefully...just the way my grand-dad taught me. "Let the worm dive a little, jerk it up, reel, and let it dive back down...repeat...they'll take the bait everytime."
And then..., was I hung?!
The worm was stuck.
It wouldn't move...wait...I felt something.
SOMETHING BIG!
I yelled for Papa.
He, with his ever-present limp, came running to my side. "You must be hung on that old stump." he said.
I knew I wasn't hung...'I'm not hung! papa! just look!"...and right that moment, out jumped the biggest fish I ever had seen!
It was a monster!
I screamed!
He screamed!
He ran for the "dip-net"--- it was a wopper!
I pulled that fish in like I had done it a million times...when in fact, I was shaking from head to toe.
My precious papa pulled that fish in with the net...I can still see his eyes...as big as saucers. Of course mine were too...but I don't know if they were big becasue of the fish or because I had made him so proud.
It was dark by now...but he got those fish scales out of that old boathouse, and weighed that monster fish. 91/2 pounds!
"COME ON!" he said...and He marched me up and down that street to all his buddies, showing off that fish.
He was so proud...I was proud, that I made Him proud...
I loved that night when I was 9 years old...

I remember so many birthdays when I was young...
somewhere down the line, it became a tradition (for awhile anyway) that I wanted to get a toy doctors kit...the ones that had little candy sprinkles in medicine bottles. I think that was really the only reason I wanted that present...the candy -filled bottles.
This is what I received for several years...
but the "icing on the cake" was actually the home-made 3 layer cake with chocolate fudge icing...topped off with real marichino cherries that held one candle each.
I loved those special cakes my mother baked...
Many years passed without such a treat...
until one special year, when I was surprised with that special cake on my 39th birthday.
The only thing missing was that plastic yellow doctors kit with the candy sprinkle medicine botlles.
Oh happy day.

I remember that old farmhouse, the one with the green roof.
I remember the anticipation as we drove to see my grandparents.
We would drive for what seemed like hours...in reality it was only an hour and a half...I would peer out the window, just waiting to see the tops of those 4 chicken houses. I knew we were there when I saw those silver metal roofs shining in the sunlight.
I remember catching tadpoles in the feeding trough, digging up potatoes from the garden like I was searching for treasure, working in the tool shed with my grand-dad until I decided to liven it up by squirting him with the waterhose and old man "Cagel" laughing til' he almost had a heart-attack, getting canned grean beans our of the storm shelter for supper, and planting rows of seeds in the petunia garden. I remember that ole' black spaniel named "TIPPY", that 1959 yellow cadillac, and catching chickens by the legs...
Yes, those were the days...

Yes,
These are My Thoughts.
Dara