Memories are strange things. When I was younger, many years ago, this house seemed to be huge to me. I spent many a summer here. This was the home of my grandparents on my mother's side of the family. My mother grew up here, not in this exact house, but one that grew into this house eventually. Bathrooms were a later addition to this house, there used to be an outhouse in the back. Off to the right where I was standing when I took this picture, farther down the road was the root cellar. Just like in The Wizard of Oz, a room built into the ground, where my grandmother kept her perserves and where they rode out tornados.
The porch in front of the house was always full of people. To the left hung a porch swing, where my grandfather used to sit in and swing back and forth. When my sister was small, like five or six, he would sit with her and swing. He would walk all around with her, he doted on her. My grandfather was one of the kindest and gentlest men I have ever known.
After dinner everyone would come out on the porch and sit and talk. All us kids would sit around listening to the grownups and trying to act like we knew what they were talking about.
When we needed to find someplace to bring Blackie, our dog this is where we brought him. He lived another five years here, following after my grandfather on his morning rounds checking on the cows and pigs. This was a working farm, my grandfather kept cows, chickens, pigs and of course his hunting dogs.
This was the first time I've seen the house in over two decades. I haven't been back to Memphis since my last year of high school. My grandparents have been dead for a long time. My mother and her brothers and sisters have split the land up and each have their own part of the farm. But the house sits unused and vacant.
It is rundown and weeds have grown all around it. The door looks like it would fall down with a hard breath. It was a shame. I know no one lives in the house anymore, but one of my cousins even mentioned it to me, if they had kept up the house it could have been used for family members that needed it. It could have been a place to gather the family around. Maybe I'm not the one to talk of things like that, since I haven't been up to the family in over twenty years.
It was just sad seeing the house in such a state of disrepair. It held such a large part of my growing up.
2 comments:
I'm not one of those people that long for the good old days. Some of those good old days weren't always so good. I enjoy the beneifits of science and like to see things advance, but sometimes we do seem to lose some things along the way.
I forgot about the water pump and drinking it like that. You're right, it was the best water ever!
It's always difficult to see the past moving away faster; expecially when you have no control. My grandparents used to have a porch swing and so many memories are of being there or on the front porch. Even when the structures or people are gone, they will always be a part of you. Yes, I know that sounds corny, but it's true.
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