Nostalgia

My parents live on about 25 acres that border the Grand River, just East of Ada. That is where I grew up. I always tell people that "I grew up in Ada, LONG before Ada was cool."

(picture to left: remains of the coolest, two-story, shingled fort that my brothers made. It sat on stilts for crying out loud. I wasn't allowed in it...somehow I managed.)

You might think, 25 acres, Cha-Ching...a developers dream. Not really. About 75% of those acres are flood plain. Every spring the river spills over, leaving behind who-knows-what that has drifted from who-knows-where. Growing up, all those "who-knows-whats" were treasures that me and my siblings couldn't wait to discover once the water receded. But, before the waters receded, my two older brothers would tromp through the knee deep water "hunting carp" with their guns that seemed to get more powerful as the years went by.

Why am I writing this? Today I took Emma out to my parent's house, loaded her up in the wagon and took a walk, down the dike, to the river. The smell of the leftover, stagnant, flood water brought me back to my childhood in an instant. I was suddenly sad that Emma wasn't going to grow up there, on the river, with more than enough land, woods, trails, bridges, channels and ponds to explore to keep any child content for what seemed a lifetime. I now know that I did not properly appreciate all that laid before me...in that wooded jungle.

(picture to right: various high schools now crew on the Grand River)

Some more memories that I relived today were:

1. finding the perfect swim hole
2. wearing old tennis shoes while swimming so we wouldn't cut our feet on clams
3. diving for clams, then prying them open so we could see their opaque, fleshy tongue, thinking we might just find a pearl
4. stinking like river water, combined with the stench of river clams
5. my mom insisting we take our swim clothes off outside, hose off, then air dry before even thinking about entering the house

I could go on and on, reliving awesome childhood memories...more later.





pic 1: Emma did not like walking on twigs or leaves. She insisted I carry her princess self to vast areas of green grass.
















pic 2: Emma picking a dandelion



















pic 3: Emma's first ride on papa's John Deere