“10-4”
Hillbilly put down the CB
Cliche
Or memory
I miss grandpa
I know a wedge
How it splits the timber
Wedge is a different thing nowadays
I know lunch break
Sitting among the cedar
Thinking how warm will be the fire
Sword ferns brushed high
On my childlike body
Under the cedar canopy
The earth would bounce back under step
We would skid down the steeper banks
And cross the road
(the empty road, that leads down river, or up)
To watch dragon flys and throw rocks
At the alder island, we’d walk out on the log jam, and just play
Or, on the other side
set weight, pole and bell
Where uncles and cousins had a fish shack
We share these scenes together
In different memory
I wonder what they see?
Before the power came
Grandpa had a generator and battery system for basics
Usually in the early evening we had one lamp on
It was between grandma and grandpa
She would read, or do crossword, but mainly crochet
Grandpa had his chair near the window
He had a CB radio, a scanner, outside was the thermometer on a tree
The tv was always on
It gave glow to the house, all the way back to the fireplace
An Antenna in a tree, gave us a couple choices in broadcasting
One winter I was up river
And I was sleeping in the spare room kinda section
(it’s hard to explain, it was a trailer that expanded by grandpa’s talent as a carpenter)
Well they put a bear rug on me to keep me warm
Head next to my head and all, Lol
I was so afraid another bear would come and look in the window, and think I was a bear
I fell asleep warm, before I knew it
Kids are funny
So are adults who sit and write
Auditing their own memory
I hope it’s entertaining
They had animal pelts and taxidermy of different animals hanging about
The pheasant was mounted like grandpa shot it in self defense
Ha! I wish I had a picture
If you were up on the hill, you were given a flashlight when it got dark outside
Cept if all of us cousins were up having a get together, then we’d share a flashlight, or latern
You’d have to use it when you needed to go outside to use the outhouse
Grandpa rigged that outhouse with a flushable toilet at one point, pretty nifty!
A good ways from the house there is a creek
Well long story short; the running water in their house is some of the best anywhere, or, as far as I remember from many years ago
(I miss running water, ha, as a tangent. I got electricity now though.)
Anyway, I think this isn’t really poetic, as much as, it’s just me rambling on.
And we all lived happily ever after…. 😀
Ha ha, I just thought about something
We quite literally had to go
“Over the river, and through the woods”
To get to grandmas house
Am I the only person who remembers that childhood song?
What amazes me is, these are my memories
In my lifetime
Grandma grew up, up river
I wonder how crazy she thinks the world is?
She knows more about the act of living’
Boy I tell you, her grandkids need to know!
Let alone their kids
Good luck future
I’d be sitting on the floor facing the tv
Quietly next to grandpa
Grandpa was hard of hearing
He used a lot of loud tools and equipment
So, I’d be sitting there quietly
The tv would be blaring
And I’d look over to grandpa
He’d look back at me
And he’d say “right!”
Only the way he could
I suppose it’s akin to a Carolina drawl
But he’d say it
And it meant the world
MindWorld 