Remember When?

Memories With Siblings on the Farm

Remember when we would roll down the hill in the big 55-gallon barrel and get dizzy? Remember when all of us “mountain goats” would run away from the “mountain lion” at the old Mountain Lion Place? Remember when we would determinedly say we were going to sleep outside all night, but come inside shortly after hearing the first coyotes or any haunting sound? Remember when we would throw rocks at the biggest wasp nest we could find while we stood in readiness, waiting with badminton racket and whiffle ball bats in hand for what may come. Remember walking a distance behind the manure spreader with the metal garbage can lid as a shield and a fiberglass fence post as a sword?

Remember tying our bicycle handlebars to the back of the hay wagon with the longest piece of spare twine we could find, and being pulled along as the haybales got loaded? Remember when we had to be tied together to a sibling, hands or feet, with a handkerchief when we did not cooperate over a matter? Remember when we forgot to close up the chickens and had to do it in the dark? Remember going to the outhouse and finding there to be a racoon, squirrel, or ‘possum taking refuge inside? Remember when we dressed up and made homemade movies?

Remember when we would spend hours playing by putting a ball of mud from the ravine on the end of a stick and launching the mud ball clear to the barn roof? Remember when we would put old cans or sticks by the spokes of our bicycle tires to make the “engines” louder than the loudest? Remember when Sukie, the pot-bellied pig, chewed the tires of the old tricycles that could race around the playground with more than one child piled on top of it? 

Remember when Mr. Goose would scare and keep all of us kids away from Dad while we were trying to work outside? Remember when we would play ice-hockey on the frozen Frog Pond, Rams against Butterflies? Remember when we would splash water down the boardwalk on those 0°F days and ice skate on it when it froze over? Remember the hours we spent swinging round and round on the tire go round? Remember when we would get our rubber boots stuck in the mud “on accident?” Remember when we would build “houses” by the creek out of anything we could, visiting them every day, always remodeling and improving them? 

Remember when siblings would drag us around on the blankets all over the wood floor in our house? Remember the speeds we would get up to while sled riding down the ice packed driveway, so slick you could hardly make the curve unless you hit it just right? Remember when we would jump all over the big round bales as Dad brought them in one by one from the field and our length of track grew with every new bale? 

Remember hiding out in the truck while a swarm of bees showed us their fury at that their home being shaken by the hay baling? Remember catching crawdads in the creek and building little homes for them only to find that they escaped by the time we brought back the next whopper to keep the other one company? Remember when we would make a harness and hook up an untrained goat or a miniature donkey to a sled and hang on tight for a wild ride through the snow? 

Remember when we would roll down the hill inside of the old tractor tire? Remember when we would all slip and slide around the freshly waxed wood floor in our slippers that Mama made? Remember throwing small rocks up in the night sky and watching the bats come seemingly out of nowhere and swoop after the rocks? Remember when?

~Jayla