A Blast From the Past

Those of you who know me, know that I grew up in the backwoods of Missouri. Seriously backwoods! We're talking party line telephones were still in use (a phone call to a friend from church usually held at least one instance of her telling her Grandpa to get off the phone), our nearest town didn't get its' first fast food restaurant until I was 15, when the town did get a stoplight it made the front page of the newspaper, our nearest neighbors were a mile away during our early years there backwoods.

Now, backwoods Missouri is beautiful! But, in the middle of the summer it is HOT and HUMID. And, we grew up without air conditioning. (No, I did not walk 10 miles to school uphill both ways! I'm just setting the scene.) So, in the summer, my brothers and I pretty much lived at the creek. We'd get up in the morning, get our chores done, and head for the swimming hole. I have some great memories of swimming there, so was very excited to take the kids to the creek while we were at my parents' house this last week-end.

I'm really sad that I didn't take my camera down on the first day, as I missed getting pictures of all of the rock collecting, crawdad catching, frog chasing, tadpole admiring, Grandma dunking and "Bucking Bronco tree-limb riding" that was done. But, we had a great time.

On Sunday afternoon, we loaded up the minivan and headed to another area where we used to swim that has much deeper swimming holes (and much colder water).

It was so much fun to share all of the creek-type fun with my kids. And, I love the fact that I am a "cool" Mommy, because I'm not afraid to catch crawdads and frogs to show the boys!