The Great Outdoors

Early Memories- Part 2

We moved to a home in Troy Michigan when I was about 3. The yard that came with the home was about an acre. Our yard growing up is the center of many of my early recollections.



I do not have many memories of playing inside as a child. Most of our time was spent outside. We had a "forest" for a back yard. We had a large weeping willow tree in the front that I loved grabbing the branches of and swinging from.


We had a few pear trees and a couple crab apple trees that beckoned to us to climb. Which we delightfully obeyed . Those trees had a variety of unique caterpillars.



One of my most favorite trees was a magnolia tree. It sat right in front of my parents bedroom bay window. I loved climbing this tree and then hanging upside down on the one long sideways branch. I especially loved the soft velvety buds that were the precursor to the beautiful big pink and white fragrant flowers that came every spring. This tree also allowed my siblings and me to gain easy access to the roof. Our home was a ranch so it was not very far from the ground.


We also had a weird cabin type of shed. Very old and a distinct cabinny smell. I would have these imaginations that this cabin shed used to be occupied by an old looking man. Crouched over, bald, longer nose, had to use a cane, and grouchy, extremely grouchy. I was afraid of this cabin shed for a long time, mostly because of what my imagination came up with.

One day I felt like I needed to confront my fear and decided to give the place a good clean. My siblings and I came up with a plan and we got to work. Oh how I was terrified! But I talked myself through it! I felt proud that we did it! I found many treasures while cleaning the place up. Both tangible and figuratively.



Right behind the place was a wild strawberry patch. It grew some very tasty strawberries.



One year an unfamiliar elderly lady came to our home. I was back in the garden area, and had seen this lady come up from the front to the backyard and talked with my Mom for a moment and then they came back with my Mom. In my little kid eyes I thought this lady looked scary, until Mom introduced her saying something like, this is Ms. Stamps, she used to live here and she always has enjoyed the strawberries and would like to pick some. For some reason this changed the way I looked at her, and she suddenly was beautiful. She had one of those large brimmed garden hats on, and she had brought a basket and her gloves. She told stories of the home, but I do not remember any of the details, just that I know she told stories. She came a couple years in a row before she passed away.

My twin sister and I loved it in the winter time. We would played Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. We built snow forts, we would go on adventures to find stuff. We would build snowmen, or just lay in the snow and look up in the sky. Pure joy! I really liked when we would get a lot of snow because that meant the long row of towering shrubbery that was between the driveway and grape vines fell over into a make shift tunnel.



One year we had gotten a ton of rain. So much that a part of the backyard had flooded. We had this blow up type of inner tube and we used them as boats and then used sticks for the ores. We moved slowly around the huge pine tree in the back. weaving in and out around the other trees. Pure magic I tell ya!


To be continued......................