Suzanna. Just Suzanna. There I am below at about age 2 with my four siblings on our family farm along Garrison Creek in 1970.
It's been almost four years since my last post and I have gotten many questions regarding why I haven't published in all that time. I have, just not here. But more importantly, I had to take care of life. In that four year's time there has been a WHOLE lot of life that happened.
I almost died. (Bilateral Pulmonary Emboli) https://www.healthline.com/health/pulmonary-embolus
I battled two Universities for the right to receive my 3 diplomas I earned - and finally got them.
Both my parents died within two weeks of each other. (Bowel Cancer and Parkinson's) I moved into a house after apartment living for most of 8 years. And I STILL had to raise my daughter by myself. And keep living. That is why I am back here. To tell you stories about life happening right now here in the Whitewater Valley. I love to hear other people's stories. Listening to another human being - REALLY listening is the finest way I know to show your love for them. Basic human love. Being there and sharing the moment with them. It's where my heart is - writing other people's stories. This was a great idea and it is time for me to begin again. I can tell you there are big changes coming up here that I think you will like and that will bring you to look in with every new post. Whitewater Valley Adventures will be more like an E-zine. I want to focus on life in general in the Whitewater Valley, while introducing you to happenings, and new people and ways of life you may not know exist here. There is a Facebook page to visit, if you like to do that sort of thing: https://www.facebook.com/whitewatervalleyadventures/ I have two other blogs that I am restarting as well: http://squirrelyacres.blogspot.com/ and: https://whitewatervalleyhistoricresearch.blogspot.com/ They too have Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/SquirrelyAcres/ and: https://www.facebook.com/Whitewater-Valley-Historic-Research-265484256854817/ If you are new to this or any of my blogs, please take a few minutes and look at my past posts to see what we are all about here. So... Are you ready for some new adventures in the Whitewater Valley? I am. Let's GO!
Ah... the Whitewater Valley. Fayette County...Columbia township...to be specific, Garrison Creek... Maybe you can find it in the image below.
http://pics.city-data.com/topoz/ztm8493.png
Yep, that's it...east of Orange, south of Columbia, west of Alpine.
Tucked away where most just kind of forget it.
That's the way we who lived "on the crick" liked it when I was a kid.
Just leave us alone out here.
That's why Mom and Dad moved us out here.
To raise five energetic half way intelligent kids to be strong, decent, motivated adults on down the line.
Give them fresh air, good basic food, work, play, and not too much stuff or mindless activities and chances are they will turn out pretty good.
That was the plan.
And those two worked the plan.
And we were the wild animals that were the children.
Of course I was perfect, it was the OTHERS that were problem children, not ME.
Not really, of course, but we all like to play that game don't we?
We were also given the gift of being made to move on when it was right.
I didn't think it was right at the time, but after a while I saw that it was right after all.
I wanted to be able to go to Ball State, obtain my teaching degree, come back, teach at Orange, work our farm and live happily ever after...
But Mom and Dad knew that Fayette County was changing, had already changed.
By the time I left for Denver in 1988 most of the factories that had supplied the overwhelming cash flow for the previous one hundred years had packed up and fled town, or had just simply dissolved into the crumbling rubble they left behind along with a century of coal dust and factory grime to color the town a dingy grayish yuck.
Connersville felt - to many of us young adults - like the discarded mistress of a wealthy tyrant, who in his haste to ditch it for a newer, younger version of a mistress, had taken all the pretty trimmings along with the baubles and cash.
I felt I would quickly become a burden, not a help, to my parents in their aging years in that mess.
I had to go learn a different way to live.
I was so disgusted with this provincial life I just wanted to experience new things - different things.
Find out what was OUT THERE.
I knew it was cliche, but it was MY finding out, so it was unique to me.
That started my habit of working too much.
With in a few months of arriving in Denver I not only had a job, I had THREE jobs!
By my twenty-first birthday I was married, had an infant son, and was in management at a national company.
When I had a random day off I would put my son in a baby back pack and take RTD's 15 LTD bus (now it is also the 16 LTD) and Boulder Express all the way to Boulder.
I STARVED for the lush country side of Fayette county that I had grown up with.
I always thought that John Denver's songs were so cornball after I reached the age of teen age cool-dom, but when I was face to face with those towering walls of massive rock I suddenly realized every word he said was true, no matter how cornball.
Every time I stepped on a trail in the Rocky Mountains I could not help but wonder what ole John would have sung about the Whitewater Valley. But I also knew it just didn't matter what he would have thought.
I knew what I thought.
This was the most important country road to me:
I played in, drew the sweetest breaths in, and ate things that grew out of the very DIRT of the Whitewater Valley.
...of a small farm that laid behind the crumbing banks of Garrison Creek.
But John DID write a song just for ME and about the joy of washing my long hair at the waterfall in Garrison Creek in front of our farm and laying on the grassy banks to soak up the sun and drink every drop of life in while I could.
For nineteen years I had consumed that valley, that farm, that life.
It was the heart of me and I wondered if I would ever be able to survive a transplant.
And so, I would leave John's lyrics in the corners of my mind and drift back to Neil's:
I did not think that was so extraordinary most of my life, but now I know how fortuitous it was.
I grew inside my mother that year listening to some of the most influential music of the 20th century.
The FM band on the radio was a new-ish thing and it was to the air waves like YouTube is to the internet.
It didn't matter if the tune was a bootleg Grateful Dead tape or a intricately planned out studio recording - hi fidelity projected the intoxicating sounds, the poignant lyrics, and the raw emotion right into your eardrum like you were sitting with the musicians and singers in an intimate concert.
...and even years later a little girl running around barefoot on a 65 acre farm on Garrison Creek in Fayette County Indiana could experience it far far away from it all through a transistor radio.
What does all this have to do with the first day of SPRING following one of the most mind melting WINTERS in recent years?!
The music of my childhood followed me around in the form of the lyrics stuck in my head it left there.
Every first day of spring in my LIFE has inspired those multitude of lyrics to pop forth from my lips, almost as a song of praise for the blessing of getting through the long cold winter months.
On Sugar Mountain has been one of those songs that echoed what it was like to be born and raised and then start a young adult life in Fayette County, Indiana.
(In this past year I have found that many, like me who left to make a different life, echo those same lyrics in their lives so I wanted to share it here with you all.)
The sweet tune and lilting lyrics soothe you into thinking its a beautiful lullaby, an ode to a happy childhood.
A Happy Childhood
"It's so noisy at the fair But all your friends are there And the candy floss you had And your mother and your dad. Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain With the barkers and the colored balloons"
Ah...I could relate to those lyrics -
The fair -The Fayette County Fair!
Candy! - a kid's favorite thing!
Mom and Dad - safety, love and things the way it should be, order.
Sugar Mountain- our rolling hills in the Whitewater River Valley were mountains to me.
The barkers and the colored balloons - our dogs, our toys.(As I grew older I learned that barkers were the carnies that called, or barked out to fair goers to come try their luck at games and take thrilling rides on the crazy looking machines.)
And as a fresh, but newly jaded, Neil Young progresses with the same repeating tune, and the almost repeating lyrics, you realize subtle changes appear.
"You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon..."
Is the mountain changing?
Or did the perspective?
Maybe both?
"There's a girl just down the aisle,
Oh, to turn and see her smile.
You can hear the words she wrote
As you read the hidden note."
Growing older I wondered what it would be like to have my first love and to be that girl who enchanted some boy with her smile and her written words.
That feeling of spring bursting through your heart so strong that it seems as though you will explode.
But more subtle changes happen along the way.
"You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
you're leaving there too soon..."
Teen-aged angst and fear balled up to project defiance and courage only to come off as awkward and crowd following:
"Now you're underneath the stairs
And you're givin' back some glares
To the people who you met
And it's your first cigarette."
After high school graduation I stayed to work before college. Soon I felt the valley had abandoned me, rejected me. I no longer belonged here. I had no use here...my dreams, my skills were out of time and out of place here then.
"Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
you're leaving there too soon..."
So if the valley would not make room for me in its life, I would not make room for it in mine. In 1988 I left. I headed to Denver, wanting to never return.
"Now you say you're leavin' home
'Cause you want to be alone.
Ain't it funny how you feel
When you're findin' out it's real?"
I asked myself will the rest of life be wrapped up in those last two previous lines?
Surely not!
Surely, life is more than just a big let down on the dreams you had and there will be room for new ones.
Surely?
Those lyrics continued to echo through my mind and through my life for the next 15 years.
"Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that
you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon."
To be continued tomorrow in: My Sugar Mountain Part II
As I was walking The Little Squirrel to school today our umbrellas were whipped about and turned inside out. The Little Squirrel hanging on to her umbrella looked like Piglet at the end of his scarf in the above video clip! A friend and I were repeating the worn out saying "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" the other day when I hastened to add that my "lambs" in life tend to act more like billy goats! Well, knowing how my mind likes to wander around until it finds something totally useless to dwell upon I naturally struck upon this little nugget.
You see, even when I get off subject somehow I jump back on the train.
"Wait! WHAT?! What train are you TALKING about Suzanna?" -that's my mother trying to rein me in...it's not going to work, it hasn't for 45 years, why would it now?
Well, I started talking about Windsday.
A Blustery Day.
Pooh and going to school...
Getting carried away on the prevailing winds....
March lambs, who are in fact SHEEP.
Yes, yes, yes! I DID turn Winnie the Pooh's Windsday into a socio- political commentary about being mindful not to let preconceived notions turn you into SHEEPLE!
Got ya didn't I?
And you were beginning to think I was just a cottonheaded ninnymuggins.
HA! Goes to show YOU!
So, what is my point today?
Just don't believe all the pooh you hear, don't get carried away from things that SEEM to be stronger than you, and its OK to have a billy goat attitude if that's who you were born to be.
As I marched my Little Squirrel off to public school this morning I had to fill up my "Mommy the Cheer Leader" gas tank of positive thoughts to spew forth onto my child.
You see, I-Step testing / Common Core testing is going on this week at public schools all over Indiana.
Although my daughter excels academically, she is constantly worried - AT SEVEN YEARS OLD!- about measuring up in all arenas at school.
What happened to just learning?
The messages of the institution of public school is almost stronger than my values that I have tried to instill in my children.
I am tired of the expectation that our children need to be elves in the public school's workshop to produce identical, homogenized, sterilized thoughts and actions.
Our children are HUMANS, not ELVES.
I remember my paternal grandmother getting furious when someone referred to her offspring as her "kids."
"They are CHILDREN, not GOATS!" Grannie Katie would say.
Well Grannie, I would rather my children to more resemble billy goats than sheep, in their actions at least.
(I do not think my daughter would look particularly good in a goatee.)
Coming up in March 20th, 2014 there will be big changes for my blogs. Right now I have three public blogs going. When I first started this foray into blogging I only wrote one. It slowly evolved into three public ones and several private blogs. I love the Blogger format and its ease of use, so I decided to stay with it instead of hunting for alternatives. This will remain. On Thursday March 20th, 2014 I will merge the three public blogs (Whitewater Valley Adventures, Squirrely Acres, and Whitewater Valley Historic Research) into one comprehensive blog. Everything I post from that date forward will go onto the Whitewater Valley Adventures blog. All my previous posts will remain on the original Blogspot blogs instead of being lumped into an archive on the new consolidated blog. As I create each post I will head each one with a designation of : Whitewater Valley Adventures, Squirrely Acres, or Historic Research. Many of my current readers enjoy all three blogs, whereas many do not even know that I write THREE blogs for public viewing. This new direction will provide ease of use for my readership as well as increase the viewing of ALL my postings across the board. I have found though, that my Facebook followers still like the three separate pages. I will keep that as it is for now. Just as a reminder here is how you can connect with those there: Whitewater Valley Adventures, Squirrely Acres, Whitewater Valley Historic Research. As we all know social media can become overwhelming and that was NEVER my intentions with any of this. So with that in mind, my new direction in the organization of writing for you all I wanted to give you a more complete look at goings on in the Whitewater Valley and also a more enjoyable reading experience. (While making my life infinitely more sane! We all know I need that!) Please, please please! Comment, discuss, and suggest all things you like, don't like, or would like to see here in the future.
I know, I know! We are all sick to death of hearing about Christmas. We want it all put behind us. Get on with the new year and just relax for a while.
Precisely why I bring this up.
Here I sit in east central Indiana January 2, 2014.
So! What do we do in east central Indiana on January 2nd after all the wrapping paper is thrown in the trash, the sweat pants come out because too many holiday indulgences were allowed and the unexpected (HA! It is INDIANA in the WINTER for gosh sakes!) snow storm hits and way lays any plans of holidaying public school children and tired parents?
What do we do when the snow blankets everything in quiet layers of cold insulation and thoughts of venturing out on messy slushy, icy roads just is the last thing one wants to think about?
"I ain't a-saying you treated me unkind You could have done better but I don't mind You just kinda wasted my precious time But don't think twice, it's all right."
Bob Dylan - "Don't Think Twice Its Alright"
Well, yes, once again Suzanna has played Charlie Brown to the Internet's Lucy Van Pelt....
I once again trusted that the YEARS, yes, YEARS of writing I had accomplished as Whitewater Valley Adventures would be transferred safely as I made it a public blog earlier this year. And that body of work was....for a time it seems.
Now it is gone. Some where out in the ether we call "the net."
Fortunately I came from the dinosaur age of computing where we were encouraged with that the golden rule of computer work:
SAVE SAVE SAVE BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP
And so that's what I did, to a point.
I saved and backed up my text.
My basic writing.
Not my entire design, not my entire media work.
That is ok.
Just like Old Bob croaks out to one of his long done loves in the above lyrics, I have parphrased my own version:
Its ok Blogger
You done treated me ok
You did nothin' spectacular on any day
You kinda trash canned my efforts
But don't sweat it 'cause
I am tried and true
at picking my face outta the dirt
and just goin' on...
Folks - Bloggin' ain't EASY!
Anyway, I will have more on here soon.
For those of you new to Whitewater Valley Adventures let me just give you a quick over view:
Promotions ~ of local events, local businesses, local groups, local efforts!
You get the picture:
LOCAL
The Whitewater Valley is PACKED with great things to see, experience, and do. I have been spending all my time pushing that concept to the forefront of everyone's minds, or at least trying to.
