Wistful Wednesday: Old Recalls

I believe that this photo was taken in 1958 or 1959. This is my brother, my cousin Diane and me. I am the one showing off:) We were at Diane's homeplace, which was south of Lake Park, Minnesota. Their driveway crossed a field, with one lone tree near the side of the road. I always used to think about the story of Zacchaeus when we passed that tree in the drive. Do you remember the song? Why it was associated with that lonely little tree in my brain I will never know. Perhaps the Sunday school lesson was about Zacchaeus one morning and we visited there in the afternoon. Once that song starts up in your head you have to sing the whole thing..

"Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see
And as the Savior passed that way
He looked up in that tree
And He said, “Zacchaeus, you come down!
For I’m going to your house today
For I’m going to your house to stay”

Ok we are past the tree.. the drive headed down to a low place in the road that could get really wet in the spring, then you went up a big hill to the house. The swing set was near the house. My Uncle Theron drove a red and white two tone 1956 Buick, a real pretty car. There was an old barn and some out buildings, we were supposed to stay out of the buildings..there was a lake that may have been more of a pond back behind the barn, pretty good sized too..we used to go over there and horse around..throwing skipping rocks and getting muddy. My Aunt Vivian ( my Mother's sister) who we always called Aunt Skip ( I have no idea why) was a great baker. She would bring deep fried cinnamon rolls out of the deepfreeze, and place them on the counter in the kitchen. Some were covered in white frosting and some were even covered in coconut, others had maple flavored frosting with nuts, and some were plain...us kids didn't care if they were half frozen or not, we loved her homemade rolls.

One spring Uncle Theron built a Quonset type building..and they had a dance out there, I was stuck with a whole bunch of little kids in the house. Being the oldest child on that side of the family and the most responsible kid..I either spent my time taking care of babies or washing dishes.

On my Mom's side of the family, once the babies began to come I always had one or more to take care of, she came from a big family, and my Aunts and Uncles were quite prolific at making babies. I remember when I overheard one of the Aunts whispering about another Aunt.."I think she is PG".. I could not figure that out for the longest time..Pretty Good..Pretty Great..I was good with words. I laid awake at night trying to figure out what PG could possibly mean. ..I finally couldn't stand it any longer. One day I asked one of them right out loud "What is PG?" I believe it was my Aunt Toots ( Esther) who put her arm around my shoulder and told me that PG meant being PREGNANT. WELL, why didn't they just say it..instead of make up some stupid initials that didn't make any sense. I had one Aunt who would break out with a rash all over her face when she was just a few weeks along..everyone would know of her delicate condition, she had five kids too..one right after the other, her face was always a mess. They had some strange old wives tale thing going too..back then they always used cloth diapers and put them in an old bread bag, sometimes while they were changing the babies on the bed, they would put the diaper on the floor and it would get left there under the bed. The old wives tale part was if a diaper was left under the bed, whoever was sleeping in that bed was going to become PG next. Sometimes one of my Aunts would say, "No one better be leaving any dirty diapers under my bed."

They would also guess..boy or girl..and the pregnant person would have to stand up and show off their belly for the guesses. THEN..they had a nail or something on a string and they would hold it above the big belly and a clockwise motion meant a boy and counterclockwise a girl..or visa versa..I do not remember all the specifics.

Well that one picture sure did have a bunch of old recalls associated with it:)