After our visit to the cemetery, the troup of our family went by Mom's old Atwater home - it was a bit of a shock, as the house had been painted a light turquoise, a far cry from the more neutral white of Mom&Dad's home - none of us like the new color...
Then, out to the old farm out on Bell Drive - here, too, the house had undergone a major transformation since Mom&Dad moved into town some 30 years previous - the front of the house had been radically changed, and the backside extended with an addition...
The trees were changed, the house a different color - it didn't look like the home of memory, and for certain we weren't in Kansas anymore, Dorothy...!
There is something about driving along a country road that is breathtaking, mesmerizing, pastorale and inner - fences separating fields from fields and from the road - sprinkler systems irrigating crops - grape vines swaying in a gentle breeze - orchards whose rows of trees edge right to the border of property along the road - there are no sidewalks - barns, and the smells of a dairy - these are the roots of a family, its environmental history, a slice of time that hasn't changed significantly in 50 years - the memories are so sweet... |
The day we were there, a huge semi-tractor and trailer went whizzing by at nearly 50 mph - fast for such a huge truck, especially on such a narrow road...
This was the 60 acre sand lot that the grandchildren loved to play in as children - neat memories of playing for hours on end in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard...
