Cool Beans

I was reading a comment from lostpropertrepository.com and it started me thinking about what a privileged childhood I had, certainly something to be thankful for.  In my response we were talking about beans.  Weird, eh?  When I was a child my sister and I would walk up in the woods and carry a can of Campbells Pork and Beans.  When we got tired or hungry, we would eat them right out of the can.  Now I don’t know why we did this but it’s a fond memory.  Like putting a glob of horseradish in someone’s peanut butter sandwich.  

We had 100 acres of beautiful Vermont farm land.  We had a twenty room white painted farmhouse with bright shutters.  The attic I’ve mentioned before was a treasure trove.  We also had chickens, cats dropped off from passersby, a couple of dogs, and Holstein milk cows, a bull, and a big old horse named Trigger —  of course, because Roy Rogers was popular then.  We had a big hay barn, a milk house and a grain house.  A woodshed was attached to the house and a large tool shed close by.  My folks kept a huge vegetable garden and I had a small flower garden.  All types of berries were scattered across the acres.  Two apple orchards and a cultivated blackberry patch, and  Concord grape vines, all made for delicious concoctions made by our mother.

We helped our dad and grandfather bring in the hay and I even was allowed to steer the tractor a few times.  Dad made us a pond to skate on in the winter.  We took turns finding out if the ice was strong enough to skate on.  I doubt our mom knew about that.  If it wasn’t, we had miles of frozen brook to skate on, not very smooth, but adventurous. We would take our sleds over hills on top of hills and enjoy a long ride to the bottom and then trek up again.  Sometimes the snow would form an icy crust and we took cardboard instead and flew down the hills.

We weren’t allowed to sled on the road, but of course we did.  Our farm road was on a hill so sledding on the road was a challenge we couldn’t resist.  We would go as fast as we could to make it at least half way up the next hilly part of the road.  My sister would get on first because she was six years older, and steered the sled.  I would lay on top of her and my job was to look out for cars.  One time, only one time……I thought it would be funny to yell “car’s coming”.  My sister headed for the side a little too quickly and we ended up head first in the snowbank.

I could go on for hours about the wonderful times we had as kids on a farm.  We were allowed to traverse our land with no thought of harm.  What a blessing for children to have a huge area to wander free and explore.  There were trees and rock formations that could be castles or forts.  No wonder I have a good imagination.  All I have to do is let my mind travel back to that home and all of its beauty.

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