The luckiest girl in the world!

That's me!  I was feeling a bit homesick and for some reason decided to download Google Earth and see what I could find..........well.....let me tell you!  I am so excited!  I can see everything in and around my hometown!  I spent 2 hours last night traveling the back roads of my youth and I was in heaven!  Here's a brief tour of some 'hotspots' of my youth.....of course, they've cut some trees down, a tornado went through in 1974 and took a lot and then Dutch Elm disease but much has remained the same......it's just the people that I miss terribly. 

 This was my cousin Frank's farm where I played as a child.............

The gray bungalow was my Uncle Homer and Aunt Bernice's where I spent the first 5 years of my life and every summer until I went to college.........the ranch house was not there.....my swing set was!  When I was little my bedroom was downstairs but when I came for the summer I had a bedroom upstairs where those windows are with a big 4 poster bed with slanted ceilings.....so cozy....my childhood was like Anne of Green Gables!

This house was not there when I was growing up and it was all grass and there were 2 huge trees where someone had put a rope swing and there was a gulley that I would swing over......it was wonderful!  They've cleared it all out now and the forest that was behind my Aunt and Uncles house.  When I was a child there were cougars/mountain lions in the area and I could hear them at night.
 Those days are gone...........

The first building used to be the Hanover State Bank and I remember when it was but now it's a bar.  The red building used to be my Uncle Homer's meat market and grocery store..........I think it's a restaurant now.............he had a smoke house out back where he smoked meat and I used to love that smell.....still do.........

This building was a few doors down from the market and it belonged to my Aunt  Alice and Uncle Ben and they lived upstairs and rented out the downstairs to my other Uncle Chuck and his partner who had the insurance agency in town.   It is still an insurance agency...just different people.........

This is the church where I went every Sunday...........it hasn't changed at all.........thank goodness!

 

 This was my cousin Kay's house and it was newly built back in the day and they had sticks for trees.....but granted that was many moons ago......they were 'modern' for that day and age but I do remember the big tall aerial that was in the back yard and there it is.....still!  My Aunt Edna was the best housekeeper ever.......she canned and sewed and gardened and did everything and was the best cook in the whole family.....it was her Swiss Steak I was trying to recreate last week.........close but it will never be as good as hers.........

When I would visit my cousin Kay we would spend time with her best friend, Sue Potter who lived across the street with her Aunt and Uncle............I loved their family..........I'd give my eye teeth for that house...............you can barely see it but it reminds me of an English cottage...........when I was growing up these roads were all gravel......now they're all paved........amazing...........

The Stewarts were another family that we hung out with..........they had a farm right on the edge of town down from my cousin's house.....again these were all gravel roads back then....the farm is still there and the matriarch of the Stewart clan is also, from what I hear............a beautiful old brick farmhouse............  

Now, we're going up the hill past the Apple River dam where I played..... you can actually go underneath the falls and walk across the river.........I don't think we were supposed to but there was so much freedom for children back in those days......now you have to worry every second....I was so blessed to have the freedom I did as a child to explore and go where ever I wanted........everyone watched out for everyone else.......there were party lines back then and they would just get on the phone and ask if anyone had seen me.....and of course, they had...........

This is Evergreen Cemetery where almost all my relatives are buried............it sits high on a hill overlooking the Apple River and the hills that surround this beautiful little town.  This is where I would like to be buried also............

I hope you enjoyed my little trip to my favorite place on earth......

Happy Trails!