[jboot]

I grew up on a little rural lot sandwiched between farms. I don't think I wore shoes until I was 6, and I never watched TV until I went to school. Heaven was playing hide-and-seek in the tall corn, or fishing for crappies in a stream meandering through an old cow pasture. Food came from the garden or the butcher, not from a box.

I might as well have grown up on Mars as far as most of the people that I meet are concerned.

[pops88]

:) My dairy farmer neighbor was a sweet, old guy. He winked and said, “howdy boys” to me and another neighbor kid. We protested that we were girls. He said,”well you’re wearing overalls, you must be boys.” He also told us the brown cows gave chocolate milk. He never yelled at us for playing in the corn or in his hay barn, and encouraged us to enjoy helping in his grain harvest. I was 4 or 5 when he died and that was the first time I think I knew real loss. He’s been a lifetime hero.