I Miss Where I've Been

What were those lyrics in Madonna's song? "This used to be my playground..."

I grew up here. The cornfield actually belongs to a neighboring farmer. The hills in the distance were ours.

So many memories are in this picture. The path the cows took from the pasture to the barn is at the top of the cornfield; the same path where I was once stampeded. We used to get huge snowfalls, sometimes four feet of snow. There was one time that the cow path had these huge, thick drifts over it. My siblings and I made it into a homemade luge and slid down the hill without sleds. The walls of the drifts made it feel like we were in tunnels.

Over to the right are the twin willow trees that took up a portion of the lower pasture. One of the trees had been split in half by lightning. We used to play in the stream beneath the trees. It was shallow and there was a little sandbar on the one side. It was a perfect place for finding fossils.

The hills in the distance were our hay fields and the upper pasture. I used to sit atop the highest hill, looking out over the valley. I would wish myself away from the farm, especially during those times when money was especially tight. I would dream of making it big in the world and coming back to that exact spot to build a dream home for my parents.

So many memories from one little photograph...