Thursday, April 18, 2013

Theme Thursday - Summer Vacation

Summer Vacation. Ahh, the memories. Seems to me that although I was very excited for school to be out, it was never truly summer vacation until we went to Kentucky. We went a lot. My grandmother was born in Kentucky. When she got married she migrated north to Michigan, but all her extended family was still down south. So a lot of summers, almost every summer it seems to me, we'd load up and head to the fast paced, exciting world of Breckinridge County Kentucky. (That's sarcasm... sort of.) This is Breckinridge County on a map:


It's very rural. You would think that would be "Boresville", but it wasn't. There were all these family members with funny slow accents who kept insisting I talked too fast and had, well, a funny accent. There were woods or fields everywhere and we could run around and explore everything. There is also the Rough River where we fished and swam and hung out quite a bit. It was always SO STINKING HOT but it seemed everyone had a covered porch and a porch swing (which we managed to break or fall off of nearly every summer... Who? Us? Swinging too high? Never!) and shade trees, and "cold dranks" (That's how my Yankee ears heard it) and fans you could sit in front of and make "WaaWaaWaa" noises while you cooled down.

Kentucky was where I learned about chiggers and ticks. Eww...ticks... It was where I learned about dentures, and moonshine, and outhouses. I learned how to break beans and shell peas. I learned what honeysuckle smells and tastes like. I learned what hard work looks like. I learned about being content with what you have. It's where I got my foundation for what beautiful looks like and what peace feels like.

I was that kid who usually sat quietly, listening to every word the grown ups said. I tried to become invisible when they started talking low, so I wouldn't be told to go play and miss something "good". I was always puzzling out who was kin to whom, which branch of which family had a scandal, or a tragedy, or a miracle in their midst.

I learned about family. I learned about respect for my elders and my heritage. I learned about loyalty and the ties that bind. I learned that adults could laugh so hard telling old stories you thought they might wet their pants one minute and the next minute be teared up remembering someone they loved but was now gone. I learned the importance of the tradition of storytelling. I learned about fierce family love. I learned that even through rough times, family fights, poverty, illness, and death: love triumphs. Love prevails. Mostly. I learned that no family is perfect but that doesn't mean it's not full of good people just doing the best they can with what they've got. I learned that there are two sides to every story and each one has validity in the telling of the whole tale.

I'm 43 now. Last spring, the "Kentucky Cousins" came up here for a visit. My Granny was sick and most, if not all, of us realized this might be the last chance we had to be all together with her. It was a sweet and sad kind of visit. They've visited frequently in recent years and as always, as we sit around in my mother's yard telling stories and catching up, eating together and sipping a "cold drank", I'm somehow transported back to Kentucky. I'm flooded with memories. I can almost smell the honeysuckle. I'm amazed at these marvelous people that I love, and that love me so much.

This is most of the clan. This is in Kentucky 1980-something. 



This is one of the more recent "Kentucky Cousin" visits at my mom's house.
I hope my family knows how much they've taught me, and how much they mean to me. And yes, it all happened over summer vacations.


This post is part of Theme Thursday hosted by Jenn at Something Clever 2.0. Join in the fun by clicking here: 




12 comments:

  1. Ha, I used to work in a call center outside of Boston, and almost every single time a southerner called, they'd ask us to talk slower.

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    1. My Aunt Nellie seemed to have the hardest time with how fast I'd talk. I must have heard her say a dozen times a day, "You talk so fast." I miss her.

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  2. I don't have a single bad memory of Kentucky. I loved going there. Running through the tobacco fields with Aaron, chasing little iridescent lizards and lightning bugs, Mammoth Caves, and the Green River Boat ride, late nights at Aunt Nellie's and Uncle Russel's playing with the cousins, country breakfasts, and the liars bench at the McDaniels General Store. So many great memories come from those vacations. Thanks Trace for the trip down memory lane.

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  3. The liars bench?? Dude! Do you know something I don't?? Maybe that's only something they tell boys...

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  4. Yeah, when I use to go get pickled bologna with Uncle Russel, we would sit on the bench outside store and eat our bologna and he'd tell tall tales of wrestling alligators, and catching giant catfish. It was the liars bench. Least that's the way I heard it.

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  5. Sounds like a slice of heaven to me! When I was very young, we spent many a summer on Sannibel Island or down in the Keys. Once I reached high school, every summer was spent on my father's ranch in Montana. Talk about culture shock! I had to learn how to ride a horse and shoot a rifle. Also learned to drive there, in a jeep in the mountains. I remember being in awe of the ranch hand's daughter, who was my age at the time--14, and she drove a truck and a motorcycle!!! Well, I spent many a summer on the back of that motorcycle. Oh my, those were the days.....LOVE this post, Traci--I feel like I'm right there, you described it so well . Thanks for sharing one of your special memories!

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    1. It was a more emotional post than I thought it would be. Maybe just thinking about my grandmother and all those memories connected to her and that branch of our family. Glad you enjoyed it. :)

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  6. Awww, so sweet. Family is the best

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    1. Thanks! My family is pretty cool, even if I do say so myself! They are a good group!

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  7. Those were the days weren't they? All the things you learned about, all the things you heard about plus life had little technology distractions like they do now.

    Dentures, moonshine and outhouses sounds very interesting to me Traci, ha ha ha.

    You're so right when you say 'no family is perfect'. Every family has the good and bad mixed in somewhere along the line, but some know how to hide the bad and not wash their dirty linen in public.

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    1. They were certainly simpler times, that's true. Kentucky is like a different world than Michigan, at least where we visited it was. I miss those days. I miss those people.

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