Still Reminiscing

I'ts funny, don't you think, how we go through life, doing this and that, and it's all put into folders in our minds.  We only think of things relevant to what we are doing in the here and now.  Since beginning my blog, i'm finding out there are so many good memories inside these folders.  It's quite fun.  Picturing the old farm house I grew up in is amazing.  When we are small, everything seems bigger or brighter, and somehow magical. When we become adults and think back things seem to be less magical and more realistic.  Sad in a way.  Even so, I know my childhood held a special magic for me, and thinking about it, the magic has returned.
I've had many pets in my life and each one was special.  I've had cats, dogs, bunnies and a horse.  I've helped care for wild birds guinnea pigs and the odd possum or two.
But thinking about my pets has sent me on a sentimental journey.
I loved living on the farm.  I could walk for ages and still be home.  So much to do and see. Out the back and to the side of our house was the biggest paddock.  Dad had planted a crop of barley.  It had grown very tall and it was great fun to run through it.  I would find a spot and sit there for ages.  No-one could find me so I would take my teddy and play.  I loved my teddy.  His name is Edward Bear.  My dad came home from work one day with him under his arm and told me he was mine.  I was four years old.  Every one of my sisters had a teddy and now I did too.  I still have him.  His growl doesn't work any more, he's only got one button eye and his hands are all bandaged up, but he is still my precious Edward Bear.  Anyway,  One day I was sitting in the barley crop, and I felt one of my teeth was loose.  I twisted it and turned it this way and that until it finally came out.  I ran up to tell mum.  She told me to put it under my pillow that night and the tooth fairy would come while I was asleep, take it away and leave me some money as a thank you.  I did, and she did visit and leave me money.  I think it was sixpence. That was a lot of money in those days.  When I got tired of sitting in the barley, I would walk up behind the house where we had a huge orange ball tree.  It was huge.  The canopy was amazing.  If we were all outside and it began raining, we would run under this tree, and we could shelter without getting in each others way or getting wet.  The orange balls were the flowers and the tree was a sight when in flower.  We would pick bucket loads, and have orange ball fights.  That was fun.  They didn't hurt, unlike some snowball fights i've been involved in.  I went up Mt. Wellington with a group of friends and we decided to have a snowball fight.  It got a bit out of hand. Girls against the guys. The girls just grabbed a handful of snow and rolled it quickly and threw it, but the guys packed the snow hard in their hands and thought they were playing for the ashes.  When the snowball hit us we sure felt it. It was just like being hit with a cricket ball. Why do some men make things into some mad contest?.  That should have been fun, but there were some peed off girls after that.  Anyway,
Just beyond the orange ball tree, dad had left an old tractor just sitting there.  ( he had a few actually) But this one way way fun.  He had taken out the engine so we could climb all over it and pretend we were driving it,  We often had arguements as to who's turn it was.  Apparently my dad had an odd penchant for driving tractors into the creek.  That would have been ok I guess if the creek was a trickle, but sometimes it was a torrent.  I'm not sure if he was trying to see if it would float (which of course it didn't) or if he was trying to find a short cut home.  But it gave us one more thing to play about on. I must have picked up some skills because later on, I had a job of driving a tractor.  I had to load it up with hay and drive it around a paddock, stop, unload some, drive around some more, stop unload some etc, then call in the cows and let them have a feed.  I think I should have made my mark on the world as a farmer, but sometimes things just don't turn out the way we would like.