Memories

The highway is long sometimes, but going back home always brings a nostalgia to life. Long roads with nothing but fields and the occasional farm house on either side; the smell of alfalfa; a spring where you remember trying to catch those "giant mosquitoes" that were harmless; and the ranch where you spent time on the weekends.

Of course, you can't forget the family traditions. The spring is a make-shift baptismal font where so many of my prediscesors were born again. Grandpa's cabin where CNN played all day every day. The feedlots we run our cows through are still up on the side of the hill. But the grain barn we would play in is only evidenced by the concrete foundation that peeks through the weeds. Grandma's cafe has been revived by the migrant workers and made into a dance hall.

I usually only make it to Fayette when someone dies. This year grandpa wanted everyone to get together for a traditional Easter, which entails a pick-a-nick by the spring, four-wheeling and rolling the Easter eggs down the hill. Yes, you read correctly: Rolling Easter eggs down the hill... To heck with hiding and finding them. The owner of the egg that goes the farthest and stays intact gets to be in charge of the eggs for next year.

Toree and I hopped on a four-wheeler and roamed around the hills of Fayette for a few hours. Smells and scenes brought back memories of a more care-free time. I was fun just to ride around and feel the wind in your face. That was until it started to rain and eventually hail... We were soaked by the time we got back to Dale's, but we had fun and that was all that really mattered.

It is refreshing to go back to your roots and remember the humble beginnings of your family. It is sobering too. All the sacrifices that were made so the following generations could have a better life.

Someday, part of what's there will be mine and I am thankful it means something to me. Toree and I are really the only great-grandchildren who knew grandpa and grandpa and the love they had for everything they had built.

It saddens me that I was not able to spend more time with them. At the same time it reinforces the importance of spending time with the family you do have around you. You never know when they will be gone, along with their knowledge.