Life's little things.

Sometimes, as so many have said, you don't realize just how good you have it, until things change or you lose them. Even though we didn't have a lot of material things growing up, we had a lot of fun and experienced things many others did not .

Our property had been part of our Grandparents farm. There were still older buildings left, that, like our house, were hand built by Grandpa and other family members. There was also a small wooded area where farm junk was laid to rest, as was customary on most farms in the area. There just weren't any landfills to take stuff to or garbage pickups. This was a treasure trove of fun for young boys and girls. Wild plums grew there, which we picked and ate to excess, usually with results that were not quite so much fun.

Old broken equipment became our wagons as we traveled the old west or a ship as we sailed the seven seas. Once, with one of our neighbors over, we decided to chuck some rotten potato hand grenades out on the highway from our hideout in the woods. Just by pure luck, we managed to plop one right on the roof of a passing car. We were shocked and scared, as they slammed on the brakes and started back towards the driveway.  We hightailed it to the opposite side of the yard and hid in the apple orchard. In a few minutes, we could see the man talking to our Dad, and Dad hollered for us to come up there. The man had been swearing up a blue streak, which didn't win him any points with my Dad. Dad asked us where we had been, of course, we said we were in the orchard just now, no, we weren't up by the road.  Dad told the guy to buzz off, that we said we weren't there. We knew Dad knew we were guilty, but, he didn't want to give the guy any satisfaction after all his swearing, so he let us off.

We did have fun in those woods, but, after a few small accidents, Dad decided that it was not the safest playground for us, and had it bulldozed. Well, we found many other places in the nearby pastures to have our adventures as we grew older and were allowed to wander farther. Never a dull moment with our large family.

Memories of Grandpa

When my folks moved back to Minnesota, they moved in with my Dad’s folks. The Grandparents bought a small 2 room house built by a woman from Albertville, from old store front windows and leftover lumber.  They moved into that house,as our family was growing fast.  Neither house had indoor plumbing, though we did have a sink in the kitchen with a drain that went out into the yard. Grandpa was always worried that one of us was going to fall into the mud at the end of the pipe. The worst that could have happened would have been a muddy kid, but, he liked to wave his cane at us and shoo us away.

             Grandpa was pretty much deaf, he had been thrown from a horse that had been scared by a train. The fall somehow damaged his hearing, at least, that is the story I remember. To communicate, he had a “Magic Slate” for us to write on to tell him something. For you youngsters, this was a waxed board with a piece of translucent plastic sheet over it that you could write on, pull up the plastic to erase it, and write again. Each year for his birthday, he received a new one. Big fun!

            Grandpa died when I was in 2^nd Grade and was the first dead person I had ever seen. Some may think it is not good for young people to see close ones when they are dead, but, I think it gives them some closure. I think, in my humble opinion that one would possibly feel abandoned if they don’t get to see them one last time to know that they didn’t just leave them.

            I hope to have a guest post by one of my siblings next week, to give a little different flavor for your enjoyment. Until then, have a great week.

In the beginning, drama!

We started out life with drama. I say we, because I have a twin brother, Michael Patrick Robeck. Yes, my full name is Patrick Michael Robeck. Neither one of us is Irish, go figure. We were born premature and there was concern for our health, mostly Mike’s, as he was smaller than me and needed the incubator. Our parents decided to have us christened right away, and I guess they picked our names fairly quickly, so it was an easy way to come up with two in a hurry.
 I was born 13 minutes earlier than him, so I have bragging rights about being the first-born, but he likes to point out now that I am so much older than he is, (but, also wiser, don’t tell him I said that!). 

        My Dad was in the Army when we were born, stationed in Ft. Riley. I like to say I was born in Manhattan, but, leave a long pause before I say Kansas. People think I am all cosmopolitan and everything, for a few seconds.

            We had another brother James join us a little later and we all lived in the tiny house pictured. We didn’t live there too much longer after he was born, as Dad’s hitch was over. They packed us up and we moved to Minnesota, back to Dad’s childhood home. 

          
  So, you see, we had medical drama and interstate travel, all before the age of two. Mike lives next door to our original homestead, but, as I will relate in other stories, I eventually ended up here in Ohio, enjoying a full 4 seasons, unlike the 2 in Minnesota, winter and winter is coming. 

            See you soon!