Here I am again, thinking about the simple life.
I was thinking about my grandmother and some of the wonderful stories that she used to tell me about her life, before she was a grandmother.
As I said before, she grew up on the prairies of Kansas, the daughter of a farm implement store owner and teacher. She learned to drive on the fields from her dad in an old 30's model Ford truck. My grandmother drove a truck! What a hoot! She had one older sister and was the happiest person I ever met!
This story is about her, as a child, when she would visit her grandmother in the old family farmhouse near Neodesha, Ks. Back then, there was no such thing as AIR CONDITIONING (gasp, what?) So in the summer it was oppressively hot, too hot to sleep in the house, even with the windows open. So when they would come visit her grandmother (she and her sister, Francis) they would hang hammocks on the porch of the farm house and sleep in them. Now this was in the late 20's early 30's. Way before they had neighbors or street lights or running water in the house! Can you believe people lived through all that! LOL!
She used to tell me that she would lie there in her hammock and listen to the coyotes, howling on the prairie, close enough to make her hair stand on edge! She said it was exciting but frightening at the same time! I can still see the sparkle in her eye as I heard the story, no matter how many times. Now, how many of you have slept on hammocks out on the prairie, without running water or air or washing machines and coyotes just out of sight? I sure haven't!
I used to imagine being her when I was a kid, fascinated by the simplicity and innocence that she enjoyed as a child. It makes me think about some of the things we should be doing for Faith, to give her those types of memories. We aren't at the point where we can take her camping yet but I have another idea. This weekend we are going to Cade's Cove, Tenn., a beautiful part of the Great Smokey Mts., where simple ways are still celebrated and honored. Pioneer ways are recreated and the homes that people lived in there are still there. My mom is coming to visit for the weekend and we are spending the night just outside the park in Gatlinburg. So we are planning a NICE picnic to take down there. We are going to lay a blanket out in a field and let Faith see nature and all it's beauty. I am so excited and hopeful that she will enjoy it! I pray that we can give her some wonderful memories out in the crisp, fall air.
