SUMMER EVENING

Summers for me meant Grama and Grampa Bagley's house and our cousins coming to town.

We were the only one's who lived nearby, so it was fun when the rest of the family visited.

Grama and Grampa had a big back yard with a fish pond and a hugh garden in the back.

We would have barbeques there on those summer evenings, feasting on Grampa's home grown corn.

After, there was always singing.

 Singing under the stars.

 We learned so many old and funny songs back then.

 I don't know that my grandchildren would sit and sing through the evening under the stars,

but they've all heard those same songs as I've rocked each one of them to sleep.

Some things do get passed down.

All of my children and grandchildren are here for a few days.

I now know how grama must have felt when everyone was home.

I remember seeing her just sitting in her chair as we sang, gazing at everyone.

 I'm sure she was just taking it all in.

Loving the fact that all was well and that her family was together once again.

As I think about Grama I feel a sense of belonging and peace.

 I sat out in my garden tonight... just as the stars starting showing up in the sky,

I could almost hear the singing of long ago.

Those other children, who are now the grama's and grampa's.

We have a different, faster pace kind of fun when the kids come to town.

But there are still things that the older kids are all ready saying like, "I remember this, or that"

or "Grama can we have thinnies the very first morning?"

 Swimming at Abby's, barbeques in our backyard.

Different yet the same.

It doesn't really matter what you do, what traditions, what kind of fun, as long as it is together, building memories, so these grandchildren get that same sense of love, belonging and peace.

"Coming home, there is no corner of my mind unoccupied with memories.

What a lovely time it was.

I can watch Grampa as he comes toward me with his old hat and hoe,

and see Grama as she bends over her lilacs.

And for one fleeting moment, I am home, a child again."

D. Morgan

 (with a few changes by me)