The Old Red Barn

I will warn you....this is long.

I wanted to share with you ...a memory

When I was around seven years old I use to play with my sisters and my cousin Tim in an old red barn similar to this. Tim was the youngest in a family with five kids, and they had a dairy farm on the outskirts of my small hometown.Nearby they had a newer shiny metal barn, so this one was just used to hold extra hay and became the location of our official clubhouse. I remember how much fun it was to slide down the wooden hay chute that went from the loft to the bottom floor..that is until you disturbed a goose sitting on her eggs, and she would chase us around nipping at our heels.We would also hang out  the door of the loft when we heard little Central Airlines taking off from the nearby airport. Waving and screaming as they flew over what seemed like just above our heads hoping that they would wave back...and once they actually did!

I have a lot of memories of my cousin Tim like when we were about 4 years old (the two of us being  the same age) at my  grandmother's house. Her maid Jesse was supposed to be watching us . My grandmother at the time lived in a house that had a wide alley running behind it. Tim (surely it wasn't me) decided we needed to take a "hike" and see where that alley ended up.Gosh what an adventure, that is until Jesse appeared lumbering after us with a switch in her hand.

Once I got to spend the night on the farm, also when I was about four. Tim and I discovered a wet spot on the mattress the next morning. Neither of us wanted to claim it, so we concocted a story to tell his Mom about a bear that came through the window and peed on the bed.

So many of these memories came flooding back...because yesterday I attended Tim's funeral . He left behind a loving family that included his wife, five children, several grands and numerous cousins who loved him dearly.

Image credit the Internet