To make sense of this story you will have to remember that my brother and I were kids from Southern California (Riverside) at the times our family spent summer vacations in Oregon.
Uncle Bob had several acres across the road from our grandparents’ house that he was preparing to convert to a berry patch. All of the big Douglas fir trees had been harvested. What remained was to blast the stumps, clear out all of the brush, and plow. This process was taking several years, leaving time for seedling fir trees to grow. To me and my brother this was magical. Just look at all of those Christmas trees!
And what does one do with Christmas trees? One decorates them! So we went to the barn and got a sack needle and sack twine. (You know, the stuff one uses to sew closed burlap sacks filled with grain.) We then gathered red rose hips from the many wild roses growing among the stumps and Christmas trees. Using the sack needle and twine we made a lot of rose hip strings. These we draped over a bunch of the Christmas trees.
I guess that Toys-Я-Us would never have made it back then with so many simple, low-cost (i.e. free) play things available for kids who used their imagination.
2 comments:
What a great story/memory! You've painted a vivid picture easily seen by even the most simplest of minds....."me". Oddly enough, what I'm most amazed by right now is how in the hell you got the "R" in Toys R Us to flip around in reverse. What kind of voodoo magic do you have on these keys? I told you I was "simple". Thanks for sharing this one Bob! Keep em coming!
Speaking of your uncle Bob... and I am assuming that is Robert Hood Beatie, my wife and I have been speaking with Kathy Beckett. She is Barbera Jean Beatie's daughter who was Robert Hood's daughter. She said she remembers you and Dad and grandpa Beatie visiting with her grandfather some years ago.
I am glad that Breck pointed me to your blog, I enjoy reading of yours and dad's exploits.
Post a Comment