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Living out in the country meant that there were few kids our age around, so when we were young our only playmates were our siblings and the great outdoors.  I remember playing with my younger brother, Lee when we were little. I can remember building block structures and playing with little action figures. There was a closet in the backroom downstairs filled with stuff and we used to pretend it was a hide-out of sorts. Our little figures would tunnel in or set up camp in the variety of cracks and crevices that we could find. We had a little toy van that we drove around for awhile with an odd assortment of action figures.

*  The Tall girl in the picture is Tara Runion whose family rented the bottom half of our house.  I don’t have pictures of the things I wrote about so you’ll have to settle for pics of us as kids.

I can’t remember actually ‘playing’ with my older sister Barbara. We liked to prank each other, especially when one or both of us had friends over. The most common prank was her decorating my room with toilet paper. I usually woke up when she did this, but pretended that I was asleep. I remember waiting until she left the room to open my eyes and take a peak. It was exciting in a way, like streamers. I’d let her decorate as much of my room as she wanted but if she came too near me, I’d move just enough so that she’d leave me alone and just decorate around me. Once I remember that both Barb and I had friends over and me and my friends were sleeping in the living room. I let Barbara wrap toilet paper completely around me like a mummy. It seems like on that occasion either Barb or one of her friends put shampoo and other such things in some  of our hair. I remember Erin was very upset when she woke up to find that something was in her hair. I felt bad for pretending to be asleep instead of stopping them that time. Another popular prank was to get someone’s underwear or bras wet and then put them in the freezer. A few times we tied underwear and/or socks together and strung them out the window. I don’t remember getting in much trouble for our pranks, but mom did make us pay for the toilet paper that we used sometimes. The only prank I really remember getting in trouble for was once when I put Peanut Butter in my brother Lee’s underwear. I remember Barbara sending Jenn and Heather’s things to the middle of our pond in a plastic baby pool once (possibly as payback for them freezing all of her bras).

My friend Erin and I used to build our own little roller coasters for my younger siblings (mostly Krista). We’d make a long track with boards and things and then send someone down on a skateboard or a contraption built with a skateboard.

I remember spending long hours in the forest across the street from my house. Directly across from our driveway and down a bit of a hill was an opening into the forest. There was a little path with a stream along the path. The widest and deepest part of the stream was the part that you encountered immediately when you entered the forest, but a short distance up the path there was a small wooden bridge that you could cross to the other side. There were little sandy spots all along the river, like tiny beaches. We would sift through the sand to find shells or interesting rocks. There was a big tree marking a fork in the path. Our most common route was the one that led us along the river. There was a point along the river where the water was shallow and the river was narrow. We would spend hours finding rocks and building a crossing at this spot then we’d take off our shoes and socks and cross the cold river by stepping from stone to stone till we got to the other side. Once on the other side we could continue along the river to a spot where there was a little sandy island in the middle of the river. The island was just big enough for a tree and room for one to lay down. It was deeper than our crossing spot so you had to jump to get to the island. The water was shallow enough here to watch for little fish. Sometimes we would build a little pond on the island by digging a hole in the sand close to the water and try to catch fish or tadpoles in it. This was the most interesting spot in the forest and my favorite place to daydream. I remember imagining I was on an island in the sea. I remember on one occasion exploring the forest with my dad and taking the other fork in the road. Dad tried to be like Lehi and named all the landmarks we saw. That pathway led past some hills and around a cow pasture. On a few occasions I remember being startled by a cow who had wondered really close to the fence and could be seen when you crossed the wooden bridge in the forest.

We also enjoyed visiting the cows across the street. Their pasture was right next to the little forest. They had a wire fence that I remember thinking was electrified, but now I’m not so sure that it actually was. I was afraid to touch the fence for fear that I’d receive a jolt, but I did like picking the long grass on my side of the fence and feeding it to the cows. The grass was long enough that you could hold it out through the fence until they bit it without ever touching their gross slimy looking noses. I always found it intriguing the way they’d stare at me when I mooed at them. If there were no cows near the fence I’d just make a loud deep ‘moo’ sound and they’d look up and start walking toward the fence. The two horses, Penny and Copper, were much harder to attract to the fence.