Thursday Thirteen

[jmc_bks]

Thirteen Things about jmc


13 things I rememember about summers with my grandparents, with credits to Darla, who reminded me.

1. The grass in my grandparents' backyard. Mostly regular grass with a couple of patches of very soft grass, and clovers all over the place. My youngest aunt, who still lived at home at the time, could lie down in the clover patches and find four-leaf clovers without half trying.

2. Listening to The Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue and watching M*A*S*H with my youngest uncle, who also still lived at home. He called me and the Biochemist Cornelius and Theodis for some reason. Was there a reason? I don't know and he doesn't remember.

3. Spending all day roaming the neighborhood, from the B's spare lot with "forts" hidden in the brush, to the pond on the other side of Mr. W's corn fields.

4. Walking down to the river and the pier, and swimming during high tide.

5. "Helping" Grandpop in the garden, and being impatient for the peaches and watermelon to be ripe enough to eat. A reward for "helping" was a trip to PG, where he would get a six pack of beer and The Biochemist and I would get a hand-dipped cone.

6. Playing with Fuzz the Cat's kittens. Seemed like there was always a pack (litter?) of kittens somewhere in the shed or the basement.

7. The weekly trip to town for groceries and errands with Grandmom. She would get "all dolled up" as Grandpop used to put it. We would listen to Kenny Rogers (The Gambler) on the ride to town, and go grocery shopping and to the bank and the pharmacy, and then have lunch at Chat 'n Chew.

8. Climbing the maple tree in the front yard. It had branches at just the perfect height to shinny up the tree, well-enough spaced that you could perch comfortably, and foliage thick enough that no one could see you unless they were standing immediately below the tree :)

9. Picking blackberries in the messy, overgrown, empty acre up the street. Mmm, fresh berries. Best eaten straight from the bush, leaving smears on your hands and around your mouth.

10. Crabbing off of the pier using chicken necks, then going home and steaming them in the biggest pot Grandmom had.

11. Playing in the living room on rainy days. The Biochemist and I each had an old phone, and discarded mail circulars, and old phonebooks and catalogs, and we would set ourselves up at each end of the huge fireplace. Forget playing house, we played office and we alternated being in charge :)

12. Making chicken and dumplings with Grandmom. She did all of the work and pretended that we helped. Mostly, we just got to roll out the dough once it was mixed, then slice it into little squares to toss into the broth.

13. Chasing lightening bugs at dusk. Had to have a jar at hand, with holes punched in the top of the lid and some grass stuck in there for them. Always ended up letting them go before bedtime, but I loved the way the jar looked, lit up by the bugs :)





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Darla's garden
Doug's unfinished books

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