Happy Labor Day! While you weren't paying attention...

...I did manage to get some things accomplished.  One of them was something I had not ever done in my 53.31 years on the planet was this:

...I found my first 4-leaf clover!!!!!! Of course, it wasn't much of a challenge.  I had just stepped out of a huge bed of clover- and there it sat, about 2 feet away from any of the rest of the patch!  Stevie Wonder would have had a 40% shot at finding it, but I got there first,


Second, I finally got motivated to enter the beer caps given me by Bobby G into my vast collection!  To see that story, go hit the "Chris' Cap Collection" link at top right to peruse that long neglected blog for the post.


Third, I got several pictures from my niece through FB today.  Seems she was out in the old neighborhood and couldn't track down Mom and Dad's graves.  She tried to blame it on their "moving to Florida", of which I was a bit skeptical, because Dad never took Mom anywhere!  Nevertheless, I proceeded out to the land of my youth to look things over.

The old, not-so-familiar-anymore route down old US 30 to St Louis Besancon...

And there's Mom and Dad, right where I left them.  (See, I told you Mom's name was Ursula!)

A really nice cross, erected since I'd last been there.

I visited the rest of the family, including Grandma and Grandpa on Mom's side...

...and Dad's.

And there is the school I spent first through eighth grades at.  Kindergarten?  That's now the field on the other side of that cross I showed you.

And this is the house I grew up in.  More correctly, the building that USED to be the house I grew up in.  I left it to my ex in the divorce so she'd have a home.  She spent a four figure tax return on a trip to Florida instead of paying property taxes, and had to sell it for an eighth of what it was worth.  (Never mind that she'd have been evicted without knowing why had I not spotted the tax sale in the newspaper...)  But it needed massive remodeling, and the buyer accomplished it... to a point which I stood inside and could not tell where ANYTHING used to be.  But it's still a living and breathing home, with children playing, and that's what a home is for.

My niece had posted pictures of the house, too, and I'll admit I didn't know what I was looking at first.  That picture there is shy about eight big maple trees that are no longer there, an added on porch stands where cement steps used to be, and the window you see next to the light pole is where my bedroom was for 22 years.  The oak in the back is still one of the most massive trees I've ever known... an ancient burr oak that was 12 foot around at the trunk when I was still a toddler.  The second building behind the two car garage is where another big maple used to be.

In truth, they may be the things I miss most from back then... well, that and the two-holer outhouse that used to sit in the back corner.  Brings back a LOT of memories...