Checkin in from the Alien Ranch

A poem from mom....




Poets need to write about happy days

So I will write about mine

Perhaps the carefree days of my childhood

Swimming all Summer at the municipal pool

Playing kick the can, arrow and hopscotch

With the neighborhood kids until dark

Having a fox terrier sleep on my bed

Reminding me of my mothers tender touch

Putting rolled blankets around my head on cold Winter nights

So the snow that came in around the bedroom windows

Would not fall on my head

The fun hunting and fishing with my dad

Eating raw vegetables in his garden

Keeping him from snoring during church

Visiting grandma and grandpa every Sunday

Playing with my sisters in their front yard

Eating apples that exploded with juice

From the orchard behind their small Ohio farm house

Gathering papaws in the woods nearby along the river

With my dad on warm, lazy Summer days

Playing at the cemetery where grandpa trimmed all the shrubbery

Making arches over my head and fences

Playing hide and go seek behind headstones

Going to the farm next door to gather eggs

Family reunions at the schoolhouse in a small town

Because there were so many of us

Tables of homemade food stretching down the hallways

Satisfying hungry eyes and filling empty stomachs

Cousins playing basketball in the school gymn

Walking to the Princess movie theater uptown

To see Roy Rodgers, Dale Evans and Trigger

Stopping at the soda fountain after school

For a chocolate coke or green river

Remembering my first high school boyfriend

Dancing with him at the prom

Sitting in detention during my lunch hour

Having skipped school to go shopping with friends

Marching in the band at football games

Going of to college

Kept in place by a loving family

Creating wonderful, happy memories

That have held me for a lifetime

I am grateful for these happy days