Monday, January 5, 2015

Monday Memories: A Vacation Memory

Hey, y'all! Monday which brings us one of my favorite memes and it's all about sharing memories! Y'all know how much I appreciate memories so you can imagine how excited I was to hear of a meme all about writing our memories! 

Want to join in? Just click the button and link up to Memory Monday at Retired, Not Tired!

Retired Not Tired Memory Monday




This week's prompt is: A Vacation Memory

I've posted this vacation memory before but I just realized that it took place quite close to the very spot of our latest vacation! I'm glad I didn't realize this before we went. Ha!

When I was growing up our family took the usual annual vacation to either the beach or the mountains but we also got to go camping sometimes just for the weekend. These camping trips were so much fun! We would go to the mountains and just have a nice relaxing weekend of camping. One weekend we went to a campground in a town where friends of our parents lived. It was only an hour or two away and a couple of other families came along as well. My parents friends had one son and a daughter much younger than any of us and the rest of the crew all had sons. Basically, it was going to be a weekend of boys what with my three brothers as well. But this wasn't a terrible thing as I was a tomboy. When we got to the campground it was practically deserted --as it was the off season—with only 3 campers in the whole place. Not a problem since there were plenty of us to have fun and go exploring. Once we were set up, it was time to explore so we headed out for a walk.

Once we hit just the right spot in the dirt road, we saw an old house looming ahead on the left.  There has never been a better haunted looking house in a Hollywood movie. This place was two stories high with a widow’s walk on top. The siding was old and gray looking with some slats hanging down at an angle from the rusty old nails that could no longer hold them in place. There were steps leading up to a porch that spanned the front of the house. Several of the boards curved up at the edge of the steps and the porch and there were holes where the wood had given up and rotted away. There was a porch swing hanging at one end of the porch and it creaked, just a little, in the breeze. Most of the windows had been broken, leaving half panes of jagged glass and, those that were intact, were covered in a film of dust and age. Through the windows, we could see old, tattered curtains hanging limp. The walkway leading up to the wide steps was no longer level and was cracked in places with weeds growing up through them. The front yard was overgrown with weeds and dead bushes and was surrounded by an old, gray picket fence that swayed in places and had more leaning slats than straight up and down ones. To enter the walkway leading to the house, we had to pick the gate, that was hanging by only one rusted hinge, up and place it to one side. Several old trees that had already shed most of their leaves were on either side of the house reaching out with their spindly arms. It was coming on dusk; there was a slight breeze; and not a sound was heard other than the ever so slight creaking of the porch swing and the occasional rustling of dead leaves.

My fearless brother
There were seven of us kids altogether and we decided that perhaps going up to the door and going inside that house was not the best idea we’d ever had. We discussed this in quiet whispers all the while keeping our eyes sharply focused on the house. Finally, my brave brother, Tony, said- in his best 11-year-old manly voice, “I’m not scared. I’ll go in.” The rest of us stood statue still in a bit of shock at hearing his words and Tony had an expression on his face that clearly indicated he, too, was wondering who the hell said that. Mere seconds passed as my courageous brother realized that it was indeed his voice and that now, because of his big fat mouth impulsive bravery, he was going to have to go into the haunted house. His steps were shaky and slow as he proceeded up the worn path to the first step. He slowly and carefully placed one foot up on the step and looked back. We were all still standing there with wide eyes and opened mouths. Tony walked up each step with uncertainty and paused to look back again when he stood, nervously, on the porch. We had not moved a muscle.  Tony took small, careful, baby steps all the way to the front door and stopped. He gingerly reached out his hand to open the old door. At that very moment that insignificant breeze that had caused only slight movement of the porch swing and a gentle (albeit creepy) rustling of the leaves became a wind. And that wind was strong enough to blow the curtain hanging at the broken windows. that ran vertically beside the front door, out just far enough to brush my brother’s arm.  



To this day I do not think that my fearless brother’s feet touched any part of that house or the earth as he spun around and took off! He was beside us and then past us within a millisecond and there was dust behind him as he flew down the dirt road. The expression on his face illustrated scared shitless terrified quite well with the eyes bugging out and the extreme paleness of his color. As soon as we realized what had happened (and it took a few seconds), we laughed hysterically- half from my brother’s reaction to the curtain and half from sheer relief. Of course we had to go off after him because he was running in the opposite direction of our campsites. Along the way we met our parents’ friends who were driving out to visit- complete with Tony on the hood of their car.     


My fearless brother and his lovely wife, Christmas 2014. 

16 comments:

  1. Sounds like one of those "double dog dare you" things!! What a great story! I'm so happy he seems to have grown up without left-over trauma from his experience! What fun!

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    1. Traumatized? Him? Nah. He's the best! And still a nut. LOL

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  2. Hahahaha...what an awesome story. Couldn't have been written any better! I think we all have memories of a "haunted" house somewhere in our past but this one takes the cake. <3

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    1. My brother is a hoot to this very day. If we went somewhere like that now, he'd still be the one to go up and there and, probably, the first one to run. Ha! Thanks!

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  3. What a hilarious story, and you told it so well! I hope your 'fearless' brother forgives you for sharing it :)
    P.S. I received my copy of the book, Rock, Paper, Flowers, last week. Thanks again, so much, for hosting that giveaway. I can't wait to get time to read my new book!
    Kathy (from Reflections by Kathy)

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    1. I'm so glad it finally arrived! I hope you enjoy it. She's working on #2 and I hear it's even better! Thanks!

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  4. Wonderful memory! We had a house near our cottage and we would make up wonderful stories about the people who used to live there. Thanks for joining in.

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    1. Thanks! I am still unable to comment on your blog, but I am reading!

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  5. What a great memory! And happy belated birthday to your oldest - I agree, not sure how you have a 30 year old! :D

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, I have no idea. I had her when I was 12. Riiiiight. LOL Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

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  6. They look so happy together...as well as fearless!...:)JP

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    1. Those two are one solid couple for sure! You should hear them laugh!

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  7. Oh what memories, I have some great ones of my childhood but my head hurts too much to think about them right now

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    1. Oh no. So sorry your head hurts. Our librarian at school suffers from migraines. They're awful.

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  8. That's a great story. Has Tony read your version? I assume his might be slightly different.

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    1. No, his is the same. We were just retelling it over Christmas and he remembers it vividly. Just like that. LOL

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! It makes me feel connected to everyone even though we may live far apart! Have a wonderful day!

 
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