My Childhood Home

Mary at Owlhaven has a carnival about childhood homes going on that I think sounds fun. Click the picture above for a link to her carnival.

I grew up on our family farm in North Carolina. It was a dairy farm for many years, but my granddaddy retired when I was about 8 and my dad and uncle did other things. We still had animals though and plenty of crops, hay, and veggies. Oh, and a long, long dirt road. Kids at school were amazed that my driveway was a mile long. For real! During the winter my dad would drive me to the bus stop.

Some of the things I loved about my childhood home were:

waking up to the sunrise through my windows,
riding my bike down the rise from the barn,
the smell of the stall where all the puppies were born,
the pine plank kitchen table we still sit around to catch up,
the wood stove that would make us open the window in 15 degree weather,
the little white pantry door and the freezer full of girl scout cookies,
bumping down the carpeted stairs,
playing up and down the creek until we were lost,
and the waterfall where my husband proposed.

But my favorite spot was always the front porch particularly at dusk. I loved looking out into the field, and pretending to get married under the magnificent oak trees. Now, the house I grew up in is a very old farm house and the front porch once looked out on a dirt road that no longer exists. I think the view is improved. The front porch is actually the back porch, but why would we call it anything different. The road's only been gone for 75 years.

And that's another thing I love about my childhood home. The history, the family ties, the love that's been shared, and the love yet to come between those worn wooden walls.