The Good Ol' Days...
When I was 3 years old, my Mom and Dad gave me a Shetland pony, Popeye, so that I would quit sucking my two fingers. Everyone loved to watch us barrel race and pole bend in the Fourth of July parade!
While chasing cattle, Thersa was riding Scottie and jumped off him onto a hay feeder when a cow started to run after them. (Funny mental picture!!) To this day, I think Thersa is afraid of cows!
My Uncle Treon can do a perfect sound imitation of the "Road Runner." Of course, we had (still have to) beg him to do it!
Thersa and I had a huge hay stack fall onto us when we were little. I was lucky and got out from underneath it - Thersa on the other hand (being the accident-prone child) wasn't so lucky and ended up cracking her pelvis.
My Dad always used to give Thersa and I the baby pig "runts" to raise and to have as our very own. Of course we were thrilled - our very own pigs!! Just think of all the money we'd have! We quickly learned that the "runts" normally didn't live very long so we quit getting so attached to the little buggers. Thanks, Dad!
Growing up, we had what we called "the bull pasture" across the road from our house. In this pasture was a famous dugout where we did everything from ice skate, fish for bullheads, and sled down the banks. My little cousins still enjoy fishing here!
Dad hired us to help him on the farm. Things he loved to make us do were: clean the hog barn, catch the baby pigs to give them shots, drive silage truck, move and work cattle, etc.
In August of each year, everyone on my Mom's side of our family takes a nice vacation to the Black Hills. We all either camp or rent a cabin for 3-4 days at Rafter J Bar Ranch near Hill City. It is a very nice time for family memory recollection and a time for new memories to develop.
Jumping a bit into time, my senior year at Kimball High School was filled with wonderful memories. To begin, basketball season was successful with seven seniors, two juniors and a bunch of other peons. We went into Districts undefeated and rated #1. We ended up winning the tournament and advanced to Regions. Here, we played Burke and again, won. We were off to state! This was the first time since (approximately) the 1970s that Kimball had been in a state basketball tournament. We were pretty pumped! Here, we were rated #1 again with a record of 21-0. We played Northwestern and won - but lost a key player to a torn ACL. We were pretty bummed and nervous going into our other two games. Our hurt team member was definitely a leader on the court and one we all looked to for guidance. Next, we played Hitchcock-Tulare and then Baltic and lost both. We ended the tournament in 4th place, with a record of 22-2 and a lot of disappointed team members. Our community support was excellent and praised us continually, despite our placement. Two positive events also coming out from this tournament was that our hurt team member received the "Spirit of Sioux" award and our cheerleaders received the "Spirit of Six" award. Overall, the tournament was a success.
We arrived home on a Sunday to a gym full of fans to congratulate us on our season. Tuesday, my family left on a plane for Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Thersa and I were exhausted, but yet enjoyed the vacation. Thersa spent most of the rides throughout Disney World sleeping - we tried to keep her awake! We spent Thanksgiving this year away from our family and ate chicken drumsticks for dinner. This trip was wonderful and is a place I want to take my own kids some day.
Upon arriving back to reality, Thersa and I were faced with volleyball practice. The other members had already had a couple days of practice before we came home, but Thersa and I were ready to get back into the groove. This season wasn't so successful. Our team didn't make it out of our District level.
In April, I was voted Prom Queen.
By this time, we are well into track season. I had been running the 3200 meter relay, the 800 meter run, the 1 mile run and the 2 mile run. Either before or at Regions, I advanced to state in all of these events, plus the medley relay. The highlight at state this year was winning the 3200 meter relay. We had been trying to accomplish this for many, many years and had finally done it! Wahoo!!!!
Our lives are filled with many, many memories. I couldn't even begin to share all of the wonderful memories from my childhood on up to now. These are just a few of them that came to mind at the time of this project.
