Grab Bag

Once upon a time...could mean any time: My memories do not have any sequence to them. Why didn't I keep a diary??? :) It would have been a very lengthy, laborious job as a preschooler ---even in elementary school!!! Now I will pull out some memories from my "Grab Bag".

Living in the wide open Mojave desert meant freedom to experience so many fun things that city kids could not do. One of our favorites during the hot, dry summers was to sit in the bubbling water that poured from the irrigation valves in our alfalfa fields. The fields were made into rows and the irrigation valves were opened to pour forth down the row to nourish the growing plants. Great way for us to cool off!! We also had a "reservoir" which we enjoyed using -- under the supervision of a parent, of course!

Speaking of alfalfa, once it reached its maturity, my father would get out the tractor and the mower (this is not like a lawn mower but being as I am not mechanically competent, I will not attempt to explain this piece of farm equipment!). The alfalfa would lay cut in the field until it was dry. Another piece of farm equipment was then utilized to rake up the dry alfalfa into rows. The baler would then travel down each row, making bales. These bales were heavy!!! My father would use hay hooks and load them on a trailer so they could be added to the haystack. The animals would have a source of food to last them for awhile and we had more entrainment jumping off the haystacks! Our fields now were just stubbles of dried alfalfa plants.

Which brings me to another incident. My mother and i were up at our reservoir enjoying some cooling off time. Others were there as well, I assume, as we rarely did things without a group to add to the fun. Something caught our attention and we looked down on the ranch. Smoke was pouring from one of the buildings - one of the residences!!!! I took off running while my mother got in the car. Now have you ever run barefoot over alfalfa stubble? Those short dry stems sticking up are a bit prickly but they did not slow me down!!! It was the back porch of one of the homes an employee lived in. The house had to be rebuilt and we eventually lived in the new home. The cause of the fire was probably a glass jar sitting in the sun on the porch. At any rate, I was a fire/police/ambulance chaser at an early age!!!! I always want to know what is going on and what everyone's story is!