I Grew Up Wild in the Country - Loved Every Minute of It

I said this sort of as a joke today, but in reality it is true. While I have trouble doing physical work in the heat (even shade as I still have a headache that won’t go away from today!), I was actually quite excited to get in the water and mud. It so reminded me of being a kid and my total fascination with running water, especially little streams. I could entertain myself for hours along a bank such as the one we worked along today. Wouldn’t need much by way of “toys” as I’d use sticks, rocks, and whatever else I could find to entertain myself. One of the first things I thought was, boy…that tree really needs a swing from it…wouldn’t it be cool to swing across the stream to the other side from that tree? Then, I spotted a perfect place for a fort and my mind started picturing how cool it would be to have a fort along a stream like this one. Even getting my feet wet in the stream was fun for me – reminded me of creek fishing with my Mom b/c we never had fancy waders, we just got wet in our tennis shoes and jeans and gut rolled if one of us slipped in on a slimy rock.

As far as the work we did, I kept thinking my Dad would have a cow that there were so many of us and we got so little accomplished (even though I know we did quite a bit) because my Dad was a working machine and as kids we were expected to work very hard (I got a splitting maul for my birthday when I was about 10…the one I had been using was a bit too heavy for me to swing effectively…he says to me, won’t this be great? You’ll be able to really split some wood now instead of having to use the wedge so much…holy cow, just what a 10 year old wants!) Hard work was rewarded with play though because Dad also liked to play….fish, camp, hike, ride dirt bikes or horses, go mudding, dance, built the best campfires, swim, play a ball game with us, cards…lots of stuff.

What I kept thinking today was how different it seems from when I was a kid. I literally ran “wild” outside non-stop. We were expected and trusted to have fun but to not get hurt (at least not too often or very severely). From the time I was 8, I would ride my motorcycle all over the back country and knew to leave a note on the counter with my general area (in case I didn’t make it back) but had been expected to use the knowledge I had been taught and to be smart. I developed a huge sense of independence and a feeling that if I put my mind to it there wasn’t too much I couldn’t figure my way out of and/or accomplish. What a huge gift my parents gave me. Now, I have to ask myself if I’ve given the same quality of gift to my kids?