"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands........" 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Saturday, March 5, 2011

The red, brown, cotton field road

is still just as hard packed as it was yesterday, before the rain last night, although the much needed moisture soaked the land well.

I have grown to love a cotton field road.................ever since...........way back.........when I was small and would travel with my parents to my grandparent's house. Their old white farm house sat in the middle of mesquite woods............just like my house today. That old cotton field road turned off from the paved county road and led anyone who turned onto it, up to Grandma and Grandpa's yard. It was where I learned how to take long, slow walks, with my aunts..........not caring about where the road led, but to enjoy the process of walking and the journey...........as I would listen to songs and stories told by my aunts................as I looked for a rock or a horned toad or two.
It was where I took my first motorcycle ride..........sitting on the seat behind my dear uncle, as he patiently drove us kids, back and forth, on that hard packed road.
It was a road that took my aunts and I to the crawdad creek way off into the woods and where I was amazed that by tying a piece of bacon on one end of a string and then pulling it out quickly when the string pulled at my hand,...........a strange red creature, with large pincher's, would come sailing out!
I really don't think any of my remaining aunts and uncles know just how much I loved that place, and my grandparents and all the aunts and uncles that came to visit there.
I don't think they know what an impression it left on me, to know that to live way out in the middle of nowhere with an old cotton field road running along side the property...........would be the only way I would want to live my life.
The only one who knew all of this, I know for sure.............was my husband..............patiently listening about this far away land..........just over the fields and way off the highway...............for almost 20 years...............if not every day................at least once a week......................while the loud traffic and sidewalk.............growled outside our little house in town.
And now, the cotton field road runs along our property...........on one side lies the cotton field...............on the other the thick mesquite woods that surround our home.................where just now, as I walk this hard packed road with Sophie.............a covey of quail are running ahead in front of us............looking for a spot to dart back into the woods..................and a dove is calling out to it's mate.
To me, when I see this cotton field road.............or remember the old one in my youth.............
it calls out to me and says
"your home".

12 comments:

Sunny said...

Beautifully said, Kathleen.... you paint a vivid picture with your words!
Have a blessed weekend!

Tammy@Simple Southern Happiness said...

What a visual I got reading your post. The creek, is it still there where you can take Sophie crawdad fishing?

WE had a creek like that and went crawdad fishing. That is when my brother found out you dont put those in your pocket... ouch!

Hope your day is blessed with friends and family near.

Elaine/Muddling Through said...

Kathleen, what memories you've brought back! My grandparent's home was on a gravel road, but just a little way down that gravel road was one with no name. We called it "The Sandy Road", it was red sand, and my sister and I were allowed to walk on it. It didn't go much of anywhere, but we had a lot of fun walking along it. My grandfather would whittle whistles for each of us sometimes, and show us the "doodlebug" homes on the side of the road. That old farm was my favorite place in the whole wide world.

Connie said...

It sounds very lovely and very peaceful, Kathleen. Those are wonderful memories you have attached to that cotton field road too. Have a nice weekend! :)

TxFarmhouse said...

Oh, when I saw that picture, I had to tune in and ready your post..thanks for taking me back and sharing your memories. We live in that smack dab middle of farm land..it's rotated between cotton and corn. The wind blows hard either from the north or south and we usually hear the crop dusters buzzing around...oh the life of cotton fields.

LindaSue said...

I often miss west Texas - but I think much of my "missing" had to do with people who are no longer there (passed away) -do occasionally miss the smell of a quick storm coming through and all the desert giving up the most incredible fragrances. Your place is just right - remote enough to have plenty of walking space and interesting sights!

Ladybug said...

Awesome Photo down memory lane...
so enjoy these kind of posts...
thanks for sharing...

Blessings
Trish :-)

Paula said...

Beautiful memories, Kathleen!

Conni said...

Wonderful post! I felt like I was walking down that road with you...

DayPhoto said...

Wonderful! I grew up on a fruit orchard, not just a patch but acres and acres of fruit. I knew that I wanted to be a farmer and married to a farmer and live the farm life. I have been lucky for that is what happened. Blessed is the word.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

grammy said...

I love country dirt roads too.
I grew up with dirt roads all around...the other thing I have a found memory of is....Paths. Winding through the weeds. The path you ran on barefoot (o:
When we moved into this house we had an ally with dirt...I loved to take the kids for a walk on it. They PAVED it....yuck. It is rocky rough pavement. If the kids trip they get majorly 'gouged'
The dirt roads are slowly...well not slow enough...disappearing.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Very nice remembrances to have shared with everyone, Kathleen. It was nice taking that walk down memory lane with you.