Memories Updated

Memories Updated
           Sometimes a person has to sit back and reflect a while on things. I have watched my family dwindle as my dad, mom, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts passed but when my only remaining aunt, Aunt Merle, who was my moms sister and only surviving owner of the Farm, passed away recently it made me think about the Farm I write so much about.
           I grew up in what I refer to as “God’s Country”, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where I was born over the seventy years ago.  My first forays out of the U.P. were to Crivitz in northeast Wisconsin where my Grandmother (Moms Mother) had a 360 acre farm. My summers with her formed my life into what I am now. She always told me I inherited my love of the outdoors from her dad, my Great Grandpa, who loved the outdoors too, especially hunting and fishing. My long summer stays at the farm finally ended when I turned fifteen and got a job in a gas station. I started driving and became too busy for those wonderful kid things! I think back and wish those summers could have gone on a lot longer but life is not to be held up in the past and I moved on.

            I can’t remember when I last visited the Farm, it’s been too many years; I only remember it was to visit my Aunt who was staying there for a few days before heading back to Kingsford, her home, for good. The place was showing its age since my great grandfather had never been a real good house builder and patched a lot of things together just to be done building. The roof was slowly caving in, from over a hundred years of cedar post joists that were finally deteriorating, so a short stay would be my Aunt’s and my last look at the place that had meant so much to both of us for so many years. As family had passed the land was sold bit by bit and sub-divided by relatives until my Aunt finally gave in and sold her land only keeping about ten acres and the old cottage which she had already given to her kids. I almost couldn’t bear to see the new roads and homes built on land I had once so freely roamed as a kid. The old Farm was gone for good!
            I was reminded of an old saying that went something like “You can’t go home again!” and it’s true.
Chris