Summer at Aunt Mary's

Every summer, my two older cousins and I spent a week with Aunt Mary, my dad's younger sister who did not have children at the time. Aunt Mary and my uncle lived on a farm  about 70 miles from the ranch, but the surroundings made it seem a world away.  The elevation dropped about 2,000 feet in that 70 miles and water enabled things to grow and prosper.  My uncle farmed irrigated fields of corn and sugar beets.  Huge old cottonwood trees shaded the house and  lined the irrigation ditch.  Green foliage lushness, water and shade--all such a contrast to the sun bleached windswept prairie of gramma grass growing on the treeless plains surrounding the ranch. We savored every minute of our time in this paradise.

We loved climbing the massive old cottonwood trees and because of the abundance of these trees, we each had a tree that we claimed as our own "house."  We nailed boards for steps onto the trunk to climb up to the massive horizontal branches. The view from high up offered a perspective of many areas of the farm, so we could observe the comings and goings of activity while concealed in the leafy branches. We spent hours in the trees shouting to each other, climbing around to different branches.  The spindly Chinese Elm trees at home in the windbreak couldn't offer such a hide-out.

Messing around in the water occupied hours of our time as well.  The large irrigation ditch had a board to cross and was deep and fast enough that my aunt did not feel comfortable letting us into the ditch.  But we made boats to send down the ditch and threw rocks to splash in the ditch.  We weren't used to moving water--any water at home was in a metal tank pumped by the windmill.

Aunt Mary made sure we had some special fun times while we were with her.  She usually took us into town to the swimming pool once during our time there.  Since we did not have an outdoor pool in our hometown, we basked in the sun-warmed water at the pool.  Once she even arranged for  us ride the train, consisting of the engine, one car and the caboose, from their small community into town about seven miles away. We felt special and enjoyed our week at her house for a break from the summer routine at home.