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Its 7 o'clock on a Wednesday summer morning, when in my ear I hear, "Raise and shine, you can sleep in the car."
Oh, I almost forgot, today we are driving to Granny's house. It is a long 12 hour drive to the middle of Kentucky, where my
Granny lives. The car ride is a blur, but before I know it, we are driving through the mountains on scary, twisty roads that
remind me that we are almost there.
Finally, the next day, we arrive and everyone races into the house to say hello to Granny first. Once everyone is inside,
we all smell the food cooking. Granny is making her famous chicken and dumplings. Before long, all the food is devoured and
my cousins and I are out the door with Granny's voice yelling after us, "Watch out for snakes!" Within minutes we
are up in the mountains and exploring. We stayed gone for hours, playing hide and seek, sliding down the wet mountain on cardboard
boxes, swinging from trees, and pretending we were coal miners searching for coal.
The next day, my sister, Stephanie, and my cousin, Jenny, had the bright idea of going roller-blading down an enormous,
gigantic hill behind Granny's house that sat on the side of a mountain. We all got dressed and headed out the door when Granny
hollered, "Get back in here and eat your breakfast." I wasn't objecting because truthfully I didn't feel like killing
myself by roller-blading down a mountain! I ate my biscuits and gravy very sluggishly hoping they would forget and just want
to go play in the creek. However, I guess I wasn't going to get that lucky. Jenny said quietly, "Let's go," so that
our parents or Granny couldn’t hear because there was no way they would let us. We sat in the street to put on our
skates. I said, "Are you guys sure you want to do this?" Jenny replied, "Don't be such a baby, it will be fun."
We skated to the base of the hill and thought it would be easier to take our skates off and walk to the top.
When we got to the top of the hill, I looked down and felt like I was so high I could see everything. I thought to myself,
"I'm too young to die!" Maybe I could pretend like I'm going to go down with them and just stay put at the top,
safe and sound. Well, it sounded like brilliant idea until Stephanie said, "Give me your hand!" She grabbed mine
and Jenny's hand and pulled. We were flying so fast down the mountain, there was no stopping us. I tried using my brakes the
whole way, but all I could smell was the burning of rubber from the brakes. It was impossible for us to continue holding hands,
so we were on our own.
Stephanie made it down first, still alive and breathing. Jenny was next. Then I came still trying to use my brakes. I
was getting closer to the bottom, but the rubber stopper for brakes was completely gone and I couldn't stop. I was starting
to panic, yelling, "STOP! Someone stop me!" Both Jenny and Stephanie were laughing hysterically at me. All I wanted
to do was stop. When I came closer to them, my first instinct was to grab one of them to stop me. I frantically reached and
grabbed onto what I thought was my sister's arm, but turned out to be her shirt. Oops! I ripped her button-down, Tweety Bird,
shirt off. Buttons were flying everywhere. I was happy because I made it down safe and sound, but my sister wasn't so happy.
She started yelling, "Stupid brat!" at me. Jenny was laughing so hard that she peed her pants from laughing so hard.
This was one of the many memories from my trips to Granny's house. Even now, after visiting her for her 90th birthday,
the memories of childhood are still much alive in me. These are a few of the many happy memories I have retained from summers
at Granny's. Needless to say, I no longer have roller-blading adventures with my sister, but that memory, along with others,
continue to bring us together.
Picture#1&2: Granny's House
Picture#3: A quilt made for her 80th Birthday in 1997!
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