Thursday, September 29, 2011

Too Little

Starting LV's memories today.
The old farmhouse was nestled among some trees on the side of a steep hill. Just beyond it was an old dairy barn and if you looked around some more you could see a low ugly building with billows of smoke and steam escaping from it. In it Dad, cousin Wilmer, and my oldest brother Mervin were cooking another batch of maple syrup.

I wanted to go out to join them but Mom thought it was too cold and I was too little. "Too little," was a phrase I heard often and really disliked. I couldn't help that I was the baby of the family and as much as I tried to keep up with every one else there were always things they didn't want me to do. And today that happened to be going out to the sugar camp with Dad.

The other children were in school. I looked out the window. It didn't look really cold. There was still some snow on the ground except for the places that had a lot of traffic. The path from the house to the barn was muddy and slippery and all around the sugar camp there was even more mud.

Mom was busy at the sewing machine so I quietly went to get my coat and hat. After pulling on my boots and mittens I headed out the door. I walked right beside the path in the snow and admired the nice tracks my boots were making. When I got to the sugar camp I waded through the mud. It was even deeper than I thought it would be. It made funny slurping noises with every step I took. This was fun! I waded through the mud some more until I got stuck. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't pull my foot out of the mud. I tried kicking and jumping but nothing worked and after a particularly hard attempt I fell face down into the mud.

Somehow Wilmer heard me and came to my rescue. He held me at arms length in front of him and carried me to the house. After setting me inside the door he went back outside and Mom came to clean me up.

Once again I had been too little.

10 comments:

  1. Wonderful post, Mary Ann! An excellent beginning to your husband's childhood stories. Thank you (and LV) for sharing with your readers. Have a great day!

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  2. I always hated the "you're too little" times... I'm the baby of my family too, and I remember several times when I was "too little" to do the things the older children were doing.

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  3. Don't ya just hate it when parents prove you wrong. Booger sweetie, face down in the mud is not the place to be!

    Wonderfully told story once again. I enjoyed the read.

    What I may enjoy even more is that Apple Goodie recipe below. It looks like a piece of heaven!

    God bless ya and have a terrific Thursday sweetie!!!

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  4. Wow.. what an experience! ;) So funny.

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  5. Thank you for sharing, it does bring back memories of hearing, "your too little". It was hard when I had to say it to my own children because I knew how they would feel. So, I learned to think of something else for them to do and often it settled the matter, but on occasion it did not work.
    Mrs. J.

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  6. My daughter hears the "You're too little" phrase a lot and it really outrages her. She just can't understand why her older brother gets to do things that she is not allowed to do all because she is too little. I'm looking forward to reading LV's memories.

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  7. Cute story. I'm interested to hear your husband's story.

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  8. Ooooh.. such a GOOD beginning! I can picture this quite easily!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.