Memories

Moving back to NE Oregon felt like coming home, but it was not until we made a trip to the ranch we grew up on that the memories started coming back to the forefront of my thinking.

The creek where I played and remembered being ‘Neck deep’ looks to be closer to “knee deep” to me as an adult. The “Turkey ranch” part of the place where we fed cows in the winter is still there, but the buildings that were standing then, are long gone for the most part now. The “new” horse barn that was put up while we were living there is now looking weathered and has been repaired in one corner. The corral that was so big, with fences so tall I could get above any cow is now falling down in disrepair.

On the other hand, the house we grew up in has been resided, has a new roof, and where the garden was is now an in ground swimming pool! The main house where the ranch owner lived is freshly painted and looking great.

Some of the places we rode for cattle still look familiar after all these years and I remembered many of the things that happened there. The bull that dove in the pond to avoid being loaded in the truck and then swam out and loaded himself into the truck! The fields I learned to drive tractor and the old pickup in are now in CRP and look overgrown and abandoned.

These memories were good ones, even with the changes and differences. What really hit home was that those memories I had as a kid were ones that I could only share with Lynn and James. Joe and my parents were never able to meet each other and I could never show Joe those places.

I know it’s all part of life, and that those events and memories of events are what makes us, ‘us’ but it would still be nice to share it with everyone we love.  Perhaps by sharing some of my thoughts on the subject I am able to do just that.

If any of my family or friends have stories/ memories/ etc. of things that happened on the ranch or at other times, please send them to me and I’ll include them in my list of stories I’m working on adding to my growing list that will end up being a book given some time to put them in order.