When I was a little kid my folks moved us to western Nebraska, away from my birth home in northern California. At first I didn’t like it much. There weren’t any really tall, big trees.
There weren’t any rocks to throw at my brothers, I had to improvise with road apples. Road apples are horse poop. Nice, round, tennis ball sized balls of steaming…actually they flew better wet than dry…I won ball throw at the track meets every year…and the boys would scatter faster from the fresh stuff. It was kind of nice though, no more rock fights. I was a tomboy and was often on the rock end of the fire fight. We played cowboys and Indians, spies, paratroopers, firefighters, lumberjacks, and army, lobbing ‘grenades’ at each other and usually connecting without grace. Nobody ever told Mom. We were tough little kids.
The Nebraska prairie stretched out for miles. I felt like it was so wide open. And it was. Miles and miles of rolling grasslands broken by an occasional nice, cool body of water. Miles and miles to ride horses across the biggest sand dunes in America. And no fences back then. Acres and acres of wild, wide open, unbroken prairie.
I’d been riding horses since I could sit so my life changed for the better when I found out the ranch had lots of horses! My Great Uncle Henry taught me to drive the team. It was a grand time. I got out of the hard work. I drove the horses in the winter, my brothers and sisters had the hard job of pulling hay off the sled to feed the cattle as we moved across the snow. I’ll never forget those great big horses. My job was to harness them up in the morning and pull the hay sled out for another stack of hay.
I finished growing up in Nebraska and there were a few times that I thought I might like to move away. I visited so many wonderful places. But as time went by I really fell in love with this country. If I ever do move, I’ll remember Nebraska like a child remembers a wonderful fairy land.
I’ve lived in the west, north, central and now in the southeast of Nebraska. And it’s all good.
Love you, Nebraska. For this time in my life, all I want or need are my dogs, my friends, and a great home to be cozy, happy, and peaceful. It’s so peaceful at my house.
Ahhh. Life is good. – Darcie
