I Remember When . . .

I had the privilege of staying in my childhood homeplace last week. As I lay in that guest bed, I began to reminisce. Every crevice and corner was filled with good and bad memories.

My dad built the one bedroom home when I was two years old. It was an old chicken coop. He was a carpenter. He took that old chicken coop, added a floor and a roof, and divided it into two rooms. One was the kitchen and the other half was the one and only bedroom. We had two iron bedsteads in that room. Mother and daddy slept in one bed and my older brother, older sister, myself, and a younger brother slept in the other bed. My, talk about challenges, we had them.

I remember most of the last 66 years. Many memories. Many books to write.

I remember daddy chasing me and my brother, Johnny, around the house because he was going to spank us for something we did wrong. He caught Johnny, but I hid under the cool shade of the house where the tators from our garden stayed until we were ready to eat them.

I got my first tooth fairy visit. We only got a nickel from the tooth fairy that was placed under our pillow during the night.

I had my first kiss in the front yard.

I learned how to cook in that kitchen. I cleaned floors, washed windows and woodwork many times. I was a third of six children and there was always work to be done.

We did have some fun times. I remember mother ironing in the dining room while my sister, Viola, and I played paper dolls at the dining room table. There was a time when mom played jacks with us on our small front porch because it was the only place we had to bounce a ball.

I remember a huge garden in the back yard, and a clothesline that mother always hung out the washing; that's not how we say that today. Today we call it "laundry."

I remember the old Out House known to some as the outside toilet. I remember climbing up on top of the Out House to listen to the local drive-in movie theater close by, but we lived just far enough away that we could not see the screen. I remember daddy installing our first and only bathroom plumbing.

When I was growing up we walked almost everywhere. I never road a bus until I was in my teens. I remember only reading about milk shakes, malts, sundaes, and soda. I was 13 when I tasted my first milk shake. What memories in the soda shop!

I remember when I walked two blocks from home to our church for Vacation Bible School. Oh, how I loved church, and oh, how I loved Jesus. I was 10 years old when I asked Jesus to come into my heart at Vacation Bible School. I was so happy that I had to hurry home to tell mother what I did! I remember as I walked home with my siblings I could feel the dirt on the road going between my toes. You see, when we were not in school - when it was summer time, we always went barefooted. That dirt felt real cool to my feet that day as I hurried home to tell Mother "I asked Jesus into my heart!"

I had my one and only birthday party in that homeplace; my 16th birthday.

I was married in that house. That was very special to me.

I had my first childbirth labor pains there. I had my second and third childbirth labor pains there. My fourth and final childbirth labor pains was when my husband and I purchased our first little home to raise our four wonderful children.

A lot of firsts! Yes, I remember when . . . I could go on for days, maybe even years. Most of all, as I look back I'm thankful for the grace of God in my life in the good times and bad.