I am absolutely loving the weather today. And its odd, because today's weather isn't much different than most other days. It's overcast and it's breezy-- both very typical for Oklahoma in the winter.
And yet today feels different-- and wonderful. The air feels unusually light and fresh, as if I were back in Montana. In fact, the smell of the air takes me straight back to living in the shadow of Emmigrant Peak. If I were to step outside the front door of our old little house there and take a deep breath, it would smell like this. And feel like this.
It makes me almost homesick... and for a place I barely remember. Besides being born there, I lived there for only a year, when I was in second grade (so 7 or 8 yrs old). I don't have a lot of memories of the place, but most of the ones I do have consist of romping around in the hills above the house, playing all sorts of made-up game. And let me tell you, my younger brother Stan and I had quite lively little imaginations. We could spend hours and hours up there, building forts and making weapons and teacups out of branches and mullein leaves.
When I think about it, I feel like we'd be gone for hours on end. And I'm sure my mom loved the rare solitude of a near-quiet house, since I know my two older sisters weren't half as rambuncious as me and Stan. But I do wonder how she felt about having her little five and seven year old running around the hills unattended. I mean, she obviously wasn't worried enough to restrict our movement much. Must have been all a part of her plan to raise independent kids. Either way, I just remember the frequent admonition to "Stay where you can hear me." Part of the beauty of living out in the country was the silence... You could hear Mom yell from hills away.
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