Change is inevitable – it’s a part of life. My grandfather on my Father’s side passed away in 1946. My grandmother lived another 20 years until she passed away in 1966. But wait – all of these events happened some 46 years ago and “a lot of water has passed over the dam” as my Mother used to frequently say to me.
Why don’t we like change? We somehow hope that everything will remain the same so that when we return, everything will be….well just the same as we have remembered it! Perhaps our memories are too sharp during our growing years. I still can remember my grandfather although I was only 6 years when he died. And I certainly remember my grandmother as she toiled in her red bonnet in the garden along the lane which ran to the side of the house. Twice a day we went to attend to the cattle in the barn, seeing to it that they had enough water to drink and some fresh hay and grain to eat. And twice a day, she would come to the door, waving to us even though she frequently mixed up our names. We seemed to understand that that was how you become when you got old!
My brother and I used to mow grandmother’s lawn with a push mower. We were treated to some cookies out of her blue cookie jar and perhaps a glass of milk. When I was a teenager, I was paid 3 dollars for mowing her lawn and when she ran out of money, she would always say, “Thanks until you are better paid!” I really didn’t mind, it was just one of those chores that you have to do when you grow up on a family farm.
But now grandmother’s house and all of the outbuildings are gone. Before I left the farm, I used to think that one day I would return to live in grandmother’s house. But that didn’t happen. The farm was sold about 10 years ago. The good news is that the farm is still a farm, even though there are beans growing where Grandmother’s house once stood! The bad news is that perhaps 50% percent of the farmland in Wayne county Ohio has disappeared in the last half century. I don’t even want to think about what grandmother’s place will look like in another 50 years.
Jim,
It was wonderful to see the pictures of Grandma’s farm. Like for you, it bought back fond memories of growing up and our many visits to the “Farm”.
Cousin Lee
Lee,
I was hoping that you would read my post. The “farm” bound us (the families who lived there and their relatives) together in ways that Facebook or smart phones will never be able to duplicate.