Random Memories

Rum Creek House

• A gigantic (in my mind) frog appeared in our yard. There was a discussion about eating frog legs.
• I remember the day of the Xenia tornado. The sky was a color I can now picture. There was an odd stillness and smell of the air. Dad came home from working on the church addition, because they had heard about the weather. We all went down into the scary basement. I forgot Jenny Brown (my teddy bear) and cried for Dad to go upstairs and get it.
• We hatched a plan to put Jenny in a dryer drum and roll her down the hill.
• I worshipped the maple tree in the sideyard. It seemed perfectly shaped and had the most beautiful orange-red fall colors. The leaves dropped in a perfect circle around the tree. This was the beginning of my deep appreciation for nature.
  
• I attempted to make small ponds by digging holes and lining them with plastic sandwich bags. It never worked.
• I hated the seesaw that Dad made, because Amy would consistently jump off when I was in the air.
• I remember getting in really big trouble when I broke bricks from a pile that Dad was saving by throwing them on a concrete pad in the backyard.
• I remember we found a huge snake in the empty concrete pond in the sideyard. Dad considered shooting it, but I don't remember that he did. It was very scary.
  
• I spent a lot of time staring in the doll house in the sideyard, reviewing every single thing in the little room. There was doll furniture, dolls, curtains, dishes, etc. but the moths were starting to get to the things.
  

Linda Magoto

• Linda and I visited the run-down house on the road between my house and her house. I felt apprehensive, because I knew we shouldn't be there. I remember peeling wallpaper, a fireplace, and fallen bricks in the main room.
• Linda and I explored the creek underneath the culvert on the road between my house and her house. I remember the smell of the water.

Amy

• We are in the car, crossing the bridge over Rum Creek, on the way home from the hospital with my new baby sister, Amy. I'm perched up on the backseat, looking up front at Mom's new package.
• At Grandma Snapp's house, I punched Amy in the stomach so hard that she couldn't catch her breath. I thought she was going to die, and I never hit anyone in the stomach again.