Aug 19, 2010

Did you ever experience homesickness?

Not that I can ever recall since we rarely left the farm for anything other than a trip to Grandpa Hansen’s or a scout camp. Then my parents would be with us, which is why most children experience homesickness from being away from their parents. Then at scout camp there was too much fun going on to think about being sick other than what you already were due to your own cooking. So, no, I guess I really didn’t ever have the chance for any homesickness to ever creep in to my away from home experiences as a child.

Aug 18, 2010

Share your childhood experiences with roller skates.

We had several pair of roller skates that were of different sizes so that as we grew we were able to fit into another pair. Our home had a sidewalk that was only about 35 or 40 feet long and had a major right angle turn in it. If you were to start on the one end under the grape arbor you could skate quite easily past the front o the house and then after getting to the side of the house make the right turn and go up the walk to the stairs to my bedroom. However if you started at the bedroom steps it was sloped just enough that you had pretty good speed by the time you went the 15 or so feet to the turn. It took a lot of practice to finally be able to make the turn and continue past the front of the house. I ended up on the lawn a lot more times than I ever made the turn. It was the only place we had to roller skate however as our road was just a dirt road and the barn though it had a lot of cement floor was divided by a gutter filled usually with cow manure, flies and larvae and landing in it was far less desirable than landing on the lawn.

Aug 17, 2001

Do you remember being really curious about something?

I was always curious about a lot of things and most of them dealt with things in nature. I became very curious about sunrises and sunsets as I began to notice the subtle differences that took place in the clouds as the process of the sun rising or going down took place. I now understand it to be a matter of angles of the light from the sun reflecting off of the clouds. However it took a photo session when I was 17 to really see it. I went over to the edge of the hill where I could easily observe the sunset and for about 15 minutes took a picture every two or three minutes. I was amazed by the differences in the clouds as I watched them more closely that ever before slowly change in color as the sun set. It was a very beautiful thing to me and one that made me appreciate the beauty of a sunrise and sunset ever so much more.

Aug 16, 2001

If you ever ran away from home tell about it.

I cannot ever remember having a need to run away from home but I suppose if I did it was probably for not more than a few minutes and then up onto the hill for my escape route. Really I do not ever remember running away from home since it was a pretty secure place to be with some very wonderful parents. Yes they did spank on occasion as needed but I always knew that they loved me and were glad that I was a part of the family. Children need spanked every now and then especially if they talk back to their parents and I believe that was what probably created the times that I was spanked. I never got the belt or the switch but the spanking hurt enough to get the point across yet not to damage my physical body.