Recollections

Looking back to my childhood I have many personal recollections. I remember, as a child, waking up on a Saturday morning and looking out my bedroom window. This was a ritual on Saturday mornings. I was looking for my father's ranch truck. It was always exciting to see his truck because it meant a day spent on the ranch with him.

These days are strong in my memory for all the activities I participated in with my dad. As a storeowner he spent long hours at work. While the weeks were busy, he would often take a Saturday morning to spend doing things on the ranch, with us girls. We would do various chores and activities around the ranch.

Since my father was a do-it-yourselfer, all of the buildings and improvements on the ranch were done by my father, with our help. I don't know if we were a help or a hindrance but it sure was a lot of fun helping out. I can still remember holding the two by fours in the stalls for the riding arena while dad hammered the nails in. Mom has a story of us helping paint the barns but she says there was more paint on us than on the barn. Being an old farmyard there was often cleaning and garbage removal required. Old fences had been torn down and left, junk cars had been left in a creek bed long before we moved in. Moving these around and cleaning wasn't nearly as much work when we were helping dad, as they would be as adults today.

There were also many activities with animals on the ranch. We would spend some Saturdays taking care of the sheep or cows. We would ride the horses out to bring in the cows for shots or anything else they needed. The best animal activities were the rides we took. We would spend many a Saturday morning riding up and down the hill. When we went down the hill we would go to the fairgrounds which was always a great chance to watch others ride while dad coached us on our riding. I remember being so proud of my dad. We would all be riding along looking less than competent and he would be solid in the saddle. He had a way of making the horse look like it was prancing. It was not a walk but not a trot either.  When we went up the hill it was into the beautiful quiet forest.  This gave us many opportunities to talk and joke with our dad.  One time he stopped to pickup some round brown fiberous seeds from a pile. He placed one in each of our hands and told us to plant them and we would be surprised at what grew. He was tight lipped about their source. Knowing that he seemed too jolly about our possession of the seeds, one of us smelled the round "seed". Upon smelling them we realized they were unlikely to grow what had made them.

As we grew older we did other activities too. We bucked hay and had watermelon for a treat. We also got to drive the ranch truck and were well ready for getting a license when it was time. We even drove the hay truck in the field. Many people commented that they couldn’t even see us sitting behind the wheel of the two ton truck.

            The best part about these Saturdays are the memories they made.  I will always remember them and treasure them in my mind.