I Remember When

I remember when I used to spend hours as a child tucked into a corner of the living room with a dog curled at my feet reading a book. Soft classical music played in the background. It was warm outside, and sunlight made dancing patterns on the windows as it shown through the trees. Late nights on the weekends spent reading with a nice gentle breeze blowing through the window. No sounds of cars or busy streets. No electricity, no television, I loved it. Raised by my eccentric grandmother in the middle of the woods in a cabin. Kerosene lamps for light, A whole forest all to myself to roam and explore. Nothing but me, my dogs and

wide open spaces. A book and my ever present am/fm radio to keep me company. Dancing in the woods, laughing with the trees. Watching critters for hours and not moving, just listening to my music and watching. Laying in the moonlight during a full moon with my music playing in my ears.

Every time I listen to classical music, I am transported back to my cabin in the woods, the peaceful place that will always be in my mind. I can still feel it. The simple quite, without the hectic everyday things. Just a book, my music and me. Every once in a while we would go to town and get gas and start the generator up and watch tv till the gas ran out. Those nights were special.

I used to sleep to the sounds of frogs in the trees, whip-poor wills calling out, and every so often an owl.

Days were filled with romps with fairy lands made out of moss beds, and the calls of Pileated woodpeckers. Of course as always the sound of classical music coming from a radio ran on batteries, not an outlet.
Nights we often filled playing cards, reading, or working on jig saw puzzles.

I used to spend hours in the woods hiking, and always taking my dogs with me and my book of animals and plants. Sometimes on longer hikes, a back pack would come with some lunch I packed, a small pocket knife, and some simple first aid implements. I was only 9.




We lived this way because we wanted to. I still would love to live this way. I love having the conveniences of modern day life, but I could live without it all in a second.