Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Country Gal by Vanita Blundell June 3, 2008

This has been a windy and stormy spring. I think that the wind could very well be partly my fault. I thought last year that we had not had the wind that we used to have when I was kid. I guess the powers that be must have thought that I was complaining. That certainly was not the case. I have had enough wind to last for quite sometime. I can remember that one thing that really got on my dad's nerves more than anything was a windy day and a whining kid. When the wind would gust, it would blow dirt and sand in his eyes. Then the worst thing of all is that the wind would blow his hat off. On horseback the wind made life much more difficult. It would blow things around on the ground and the horses would be uneasy. If something was going to bust loose, this would be the time it would happen.
Our house had a big picture window in the north. When you looked out of it you could see the driveway and the road. When a dirt storm came from the north you could watch it come down the road and right into our house. It seemed it was usually on Saturday night after Mom had spent the biggest part of her day waxing our hardwood floors. That dirt would blow into the house and all of the dirt and dust on her beautiful floors was heartbreaking. I not sure Mom ever cried- but I know how important her housekeeping was to her and it made me feel sort of sick inside.
When a storm would come up Dad would get antsy and thought they should to go the cellar. Mom was not a cellar goer. She might have been more likely to go to the cellar if it was a pleasant place. But the underground crypt was buggy, musty and all around yucky. Once Dad was sure that they were about to be blown away, so he told mom that they must go to the cellar. This was a Saturday night and Mom had worked hard all day with her Saturday cleaning and she just got Vickie and Virgil to bed. She was so tired and was not interested in going to the cellar. She told Dad to go on but she was staying in the house. Dad said that it would not look good if the house blew her and the kids away while he was in the cellar safe and sound. Mom won that round and he stayed in the house with the rest of his exhausted family. Luckily, the storm passed over without any harm. I think by the time I came along they were not as concerned with the weather since I never remember going to the cellar for safety. This did not bother me as I was with mom on her thoughts of the cellar-spiders, bugs, toads and snakes are not my idea of a good time.

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