Gam had a grape vine way in the back of her yard. Just before you got to the graveyard road. She made grape jelly and jams and I loved to see her out there in her bonnet & her house-dress gathering grapes. There was a little ditch between that grapevine and where the field started and in that ditch there always seemed to be standing water and there were at least a million tadpoles in that ditch in summertime! The little ditch was really not very deep, but it went the whole length across the back of Gams yard, behind all those out buildings that used to be back there. Remember the corn storage building? It had spaces between all the boards that it was built from and covered with wire. I guess for air flow but I know I stayed FAR away from it because I was always worried about a snake being in there and I might not be able to get out of it fast enough when I had to run. Although right next to that wood and wire barn was another barn that had Pops tractor in it. That one was wide open, no door so I would go in there and climb up to sit on that tractor seat and pretend I was driving. It had a steering wheel just like a car. I mean I guess all tractors do but thats the only one I’ve ever been on. A few more buildings and barns down and then you were in Carla & Toms back yard and they had a swing I think hung from a tree in their back yard? Was it a tire swing there Carla? A deep ditch on the other side of Carlas house separated her yard from the field that went all the way to Ethels. My lovely Aunt Flora never fussed at me one time that I can recall. I remember us jumping over that ditch back and forth and playing all out in each others yards and in and out of Gams house.

I love my cousins and now that I am older, I appreciate they were more like my siblings, especially my Signpost cousins because we were in each others lives daily. I think this is what I love the most about the cousin outings we’ve been doing lately. It always leaves me feeling like I’ve just spent the day outside playing with them, like back when we were kids..