- Built the best treefort ever in a huge tree DOWN the mountain from the house...
- Built and rode many a go-cart down the hill from the barn to the house, and down the driveway - both bumpy and fun as heck!
- To this day...I shake milk before I pour it (ostensibly to mix the cream back in that has separated while it sat).
- Shopping at Hanks in Forest Grove...
- Back to school clothes shopping with Nancy and Byrda (Fred Meyer springs to mind!)
- Coupon and Label Clipping!!!!!!
- Playing The Farming Game
- Learning to program in Basic on first generation computers...
- Reading books, books, and more books...
- Oversleeping the early morning milking...
- Milking a cow by hand!
- Putting "kickers" on the cantankerous cows...
- Getting to pick my very own calf to call my own (Sandy)...
- Chasing barn mice out of the feed barrels...
- Building hay bale forts in the hay barn with cousin David Scott...
- Getting to spend the whole day in town playing video games and swimming on slaughter day...
- Delivering milk to the neighbors/customers...
- Spraying off barn boots with the hose outside the house before coming into the house...
- Throwing garbage "over the hill"...
- Going exploring in the woods...
- Steering clear of Junior, the bull...
- Trying to make barn cats into pets...
- Shoveling 5 feet of manure out of various barns...
- Feeding calves with those HUGE bottles...and getting head butted into the fence for my trouble!
- Picking strawberries from the garden...
- Teasing Nancy about "having an affair" with the guy who they bought hay from at the bottom of the hill...
- Eating BIG breakfasts -- 1st and 2nd breakfasts!!!
- Sleeping in sleeping bags underneath the kitchen table when all of us were visiting Portland...
- Grandpa telling stories of his railroad days after lunch...
- Getting to hear (on the local news, one particular summer) all about the Bagwam Shri Rashneesh trying to buy and move to Banks, Oregon!
JILL
- hmmmm, where do I start.....
- I was 11 when we first showed up at Portland to meet dad's dad, whom he had not seen in like 40 yrs.. we showed up in the infamous camper bus , with 5 kids at the time,, and mum was expecting sparky? i think? for a quick first day meeting memory, it was sunny, we stayed for the afternoon only, we met them outside..
- grandpa, nice friendly, very welcoming,
- birdie, who was round like tweedle dee, or dum,, not sure which one.. had a small head, and tiny feet, but real round like a barrel everywhere else. not sure if she showed her true colours on that day, but we soon learned that she was grumpy , mean, gossipy, ungrateful, unkind, especially to great grandma.,
- janet, unattractive butchy, and not overly friendly, also mean to great grandma
- nancy, nicer than janet, slim but strong, really not attractive, very hairy, even on her face, black heavy glasses, and a large manly, gathright nose
- grandmother gathright, geneva, the nicest old lady you will ever meet,, small lady, rounded shoulders,really southern accent, snow white whispy hair, nicely dressed, she wore nice sweaters in pastel colours
- we had a huge meal, tons of food, they squeezed us into their tiny house, set up a card table for more place settings, lots of meat and salty things, thick creamy milk in big gallon jars, white store bought bread, macaroni and cheese made with weird homemade cheese, that tasted odd, but was good in a way.
- dirty, dirty, dirty,messy, unorganized, clutter, warehouse of supplies and canned goods, cobwebs,dust, dirt, muddy boots, dirty jackets, stuff everywhere and piled high about to topple over, coupons, cereal boxes, paper bags piled up taking up half the living space, fridges and freezers everywhere, plastic picnic cups, chocolate milk, 6 meals a day, cats, cats, cats, more never been opened cleaning supplies in the bathroom than anything else and covered in dirt. spiders and cobwebs in the tub and hanging everywhere, tons of toilet paper, black phone on the wall so covered in dust and grime you could barely see the numbers, books, magazines, small tv, milking cows, pitching hay, cleaning out pens, the sound of the milk machines sucking away with a real rhythm that would be stuck in your head all day, fly strips, cats, cat dishes, calf feeding with those big baby bottles, playing in the barn, the hay all stacked up, climbing up to the top, the smell of fresh hay, hay hooks hanging on the wall, manure so deep, it was like a lake, you couldn't walk in it, you'd get sucked in, boots, getting stuck in the suction, and falling in with socked feet! yuck! the cows udders hanging dragging in the soupy crap, sleeping upstairs in 'Nancy's room', bunk beds, small narrow paths to get through all the sky high stuff. walking down to get the mail, looking at catalogs, going shopping, town days, Fred Meyers, sitting in the old abandoned cars and trucks for hours pretending to drive.
- well... that's Portland in a nutshell!!
PAIGE
- sleeping under the table
- real milk
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