Throwback Thursday

 This house.

My grandma and grandpa Z. lived in Barnhart, MO---the sticks, the boonies, the country. Nearest neighbors were a mile away. Gravel roads, woods, caves, creeks, railroad tracks, mailboxes all lined up---I can still remember the smell---there's just something about the country.

They had a cistern which made the water taste "irony." They had a basement that had rooms that were dirt for storing vegetables and home canned things. There were so many awesome things about this house.

There were several "out" buildings. This one was called the clubhouse. It was set with picnic tables for huge family gatherings. There was another that had an old-fashioned soda cooler. You'd reach your had in to the slushy, ice cold water and pull out a soda. You never knew what you might get. It could be a Coke, Nehi Grape, 7-Up, Fanta, or Dad's rootbeer. They were always icey cold and tasted so good in the summer.

They had their very own "dump." There was an area on the edge of the woods where all the trash and garbage was dumped. Occasionally, they would burn it. Just standing there looking at all the garbage was surprisingly fun.

 The dining room was laden with cookies and candy of every description at Christmas time.

The eating area adjacent to the kitchen had this nifty pass through. I loved my grandma's depression glass dishes. You can't tell by this picture, but they were green. She always used tablecloths---of which I'm lucky to have two.

There was the room upstairs that we dubbed "the reading room." It was full of books, but it was the National Enquirer and True Romance that we were really interested in.

It was this that was my favorite.
The Porch....

I have such fond memories of this porch. It was hot in the summer for sure. There were fans. Still you'd find the men listening to the ball game out here. There was a daybed that we'd nap on now and then. But what I remember most of all were all the Scrabble games I played with my grandma here. She taught us other games too---Yahtzee, Blitz (she gave us nickels to gamble with) and  Tripoley (another gambling game with pennies). We worked puzzles out here. My favorite was definitely Scrabble. We had homemade peach ice cream while we played. I even had my very first Heath Bar on this porch. You can still see the red painted concrete floor. It was a comfortable, friendly place. It was fun to sit here when it rained and have the mist blow in on you.

We had some good times here. Sadly, the house has been torn down---probably 20 years ago. Still, I'll always remember it. Funny the little things you remember!