...Snowy Day Remembering's...

This first week of January 2017 has brought a lovely snow shower to end the week. Looking out my window, as I do most days, today frames the 'Old Man in the Tree' with snow flakes gently falling all around, while the moss on the Chinese Elm catches the snow making for enhanced shadows on this Lane Home Place stalwart that is as much apart of this place as the family that has loved and lived here for 38 years.

A window with a view

East Tennessee is known for it's unpredictable weather pattern's; in reality it is a hard to predict area because of the mountains, the valley's and the rivers that surround us. There have been years when we have had harsh and heavy snowfalls and years where spring comes early and then we are surprised by a late winter.

'Old Man in the Tree' keeping watch so loyal is he

Big Daddy Lane Creation's silent now...waiting...

For me personally I enjoy the beauty of snow, as long as my creature comforts are taken care of and I am cozy. For the most part I am a gad about type A personality. My Mom use to say although they named me Linda Sue, they should have named me Linda 'gotta go', because I had such an overactive metabolism, I desired to be active and on the go, never tiring even to sleep. Eventually as in most human beings, my age and the wear and unhealthy abuse of my body has now caught up with my metabolism and I am more content to get'er done early and content to lounge at home in the evening.

Snow days at Lane Home Place were always fun days. It was days of lazy laying around, laughing, making tent forts, playing with lego's, playing in the snow, hot chocolate with marshmallow cream, snow cream (only after the first snow) a blazing fire in the fire place to warm your frozen behind's after sledding and making snow angels, a pot of chili or homemade soup bubbling away on the stove. Days when Curt could take off of work he would, when we were all shacked up together in the house just enjoying being a family! Of course there was the year when the pipes froze, the pressure regulator blew a gasket and Curt and Chris were under the house chasing a leak for hours until finally we called a Plumber who came at 11:00 at night and had her fixed in a snap. Fun times indeed.

When I get the old Western Clipper Sled down to decorate at Christmas the memories of Curt, Chris and Amy sledding down the icy roads of Maida Vale make me smile with delight and their precious voices come echoing back as if only yesterday.

The Lane Western Clipper...a little worse for wear but I bet it can still fly..

When I was in high school my family lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming. My Dad was stationed there during his last tour of duty in The USAF. Wyoming was the land of snow. It sometimes began in September and the year I graduated in 1967 it snowed on June 15th. So I have been acquainted with big snow days. The wind in Wyoming is a factor for blizzards and we lived in a two story townhome that backed up to a massive empty field where sagebrush constantly was tossed into our back yard. The snow would pile so heavily against the back of our house that if I could have managed it I could have had a ski run from my bedroom window straight out to the field...School was never called for a snow day, work was on and life on the wide open plains was ongoing. Those days with my parents, and my brothers were days of togetherness. We only had each other and the friends that were like family. Military families do not have the closeness of relatives so they have to rely on one another. When we would have friends over on the week-ends our Mom would usually make pancakes. Which my friend  Maggie still remembers with great glee, because she made them for her  and not for Butch's friend who stayed the next week-end.

The Francis E. Warren entrance.
Curt was one of the Air Police that stood in the little box in the middle



 

Cheyenne, Wyoming where I met and married my true love. A young man from southern California, who was in the Air Police, stationed at Francis E.      Warren AFB, having recently been stationed at Wildwood AFB in Kenia, Alaska. We met at my friend's Lynda Lawson's house, where he and his friend Dix played their guitar's and banjo's and entertained us. Soon afterwards we began dating. One evening as the dusk was settling in, he drove me out to Round Top Lake, which was situated behind Francis E Warren AFB, in his spanking new Red Malibu Super Sport. When we arrived he played his 12 string guitar and sang a song he wrote for me...I was smitten by his tenderness, his genuine loving and caring attitude, along with his beautiful smile, tenor vocals, and his large, strong but gentle hands. The name of the song was called "I've only Kissed You Once", I said afterwards " but you have never kissed me." and he said " Ah yes I know...but I want too!" The rest is history as the saying goes. I found after 41 years of marriage that my original evaluation of this man was remarkably accurate and true. He was a God given gift of the heart forever and always, and we were blessed with a son and daughter, and now have two grandson's and two granddaughter's as a legacy because of God's gift 

One of Curt's passions digging bottles

This is how I remember him when we first met,
Shetland Jacket, Cowboy boots, and Hat
 it suited him...

My favorite...those were the days...we thought they would never end...

1968 Chevrolet Malibu Super Sport

 

Wedding Day March 27, 1969
Greely, Colorado

 

So as usual my hands have relayed from my heart what perhaps my mouth could not speak, on a snowy day in East Tennessee memories have come a calling and another story shared of days long ago. Tears of joy and of sorrow at having had it all and now only the memories of a young true love, that became so much more...Missing you Big Boy...in your month of January the month of your alpha and your omega. Knowing you are within the almighty presence of YAWHEH,  fills me with inner peace and allows me to continue on with this earthly life.