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Summer has always been my one of my favorite times of year. When I was younger, I was always sad when the school year ended. It meant I wouldn't see my friends until my birthday in June and then again not until I went back to school in September. We lived 12 miles from town. That doesn't seem like a lot now, when I live 40 miles from town, but when I was a kid, only my parents went to town every day to work and my grandmother who lived with us would go to town once a month to get groceries. When she went to get groceries, I could go along and return library books and get more. But we weren't allowed to play with friends. And we couldn't call and just talk to them because we were on a party line.
But in June, I could call and invite them for a sleepover on my birthday.
The best part of summer was spending days up in the orchard, playing in the irrigation ditch that watered the trees and the garden vegetables. There was also hiking over the hill and swimming in the river at what we called the "sand bar."
But the best part of summer was riding my horse over the hill, across the river, and up the mountain that was on one side of the canyon where we lived. I loved the solitary rides, just me and Junebug, my mare. Some days I'd saddle her up and wear jeans and boots, other days, I'd ride bareback, with my bare legs and feet dangling at her sides. When I didn't have a saddle, I'd lay back, my spine in line with hers, my head resting on her rump. She'd walk along the old log roads, and I stared up at the dapple light shining through the cottonwood leaves and boughs of the pines and firs. Those days I remember with great joy!
Other times, I would go to my solitary place on a strip of land between the Lostine River and the South Fork ditch. There under a cottonwood tree, surrounded by ferns, I'd draw and write stories, or read a book.
There have been many days as an adult that I've wished for a few of those summer days again. I ride my gelding sporadically these days. neither one of us is young. I have to feel like saddling him and using up hours of the day that I could be writing or taking care of the business of writing. Where I live now there isn't running water near us to cool my feet or listen to the murmur as I am creative.
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| Riding my gelding, Jan. |
But I do enjoy your treks this time of the year up the Steens Mountain to see the wildflowers in bloom. And I do get out on a horseback ride now and then with my daughter and grandkids. Hubby and I are trying to do more two and three-day trips with our camper to see more of Southern Oregon.
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| These are wildflowers I found in Montana on a research trip. |
This summer I am judging at more county fairs than I have in the past few years. So I will be traveling around eastern Oregon judging 4-H and Open Class static exhibits in August. I like doing that. I see the state and meet people.
I hope you all have a wonderful summer! It is one of the best times of the year, as long as the weather doesn't get too crazy hot!
Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 58 novels, 10 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and Western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the Western lifestyle, she lives it.
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4 comments:
Paty, I do remember the party lines. I think we were on a 3 party line because that was the least expensive when I was growing up. The freedom of cell phones and single party land lines is, when I remember "when", a luxury. Love the picture of the wildflowers!
I also remember when school was out in June and picking berries (not for long because of a bad sunburn) and then beans (again not long because I sprained my ankle). I did well, once I was 12, earning money babysitting. $0.25 an hour was my fee. I don't think that would have worked so well for you living out in the country...12 miles "back then" seemed farther away than 12 miles does these days.
Your summer fun as a child sounds delightful. We lived in town always when I was a child. Summer meant mom's homemade lemonade, twice a week the ice cream man came down our street and we got a treat.
Years later when I had kids of my own, I had horses to ride too. That was always the best feeling to ride on the dirt road. Hearing the clop of the hoves on the road, listening to the wind in the trees and the chatter of my three kids.
Thanks for bringing back memories for me too!
Judith, we were on a 3-party line too. Our house was two rings. We rolled bales and helped change irrigation pipes in the summer along with the fun stuff.
Diana, Glad I could bring back fond memories for you. We made lemonade and iced tea and took it the quarter mile out our lane to the county road and tried selling it. We never made very much but we had fun sitting out there watching the cars go by as they headed up into the Eagle Cap wilderness to hike or horse pack in.
Paty- what wonderful memories. Love your descriptions of your adventures on horseback. I love envisioning you lying back on the horse and watching the sky. I envy you those open spaces to explore.
I grew up a city girl. My family lived overseas a lot during my childhood. But the family camp (with four cabins, a view of the lake and mountains, in the upper western corner of the Adirondacks,) was where my I still cherish memories of wandering in the woods, catching frogs, building fairy houses, picking wildflowers, and taking our motorboat to the sand bar to swim. For several years I went to a summer camp on the nearby lake, where I learned to horseback ride, hike, and camp in the hills, etc. We also had a party line. But after our month "in the country" we went back to the city, where my biggest adventures were dodging pedestrians on crowded sidewalks, shortcuts down allies to catch the bus to school, and later taking over 200 steps down to the underground Metroliner station.
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