After visiting my parents yesterday, I decided to drive around Ashland for a while and see if I could remember where all the things were located that were part of my childhood.
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| Bad pic as I was driving of the house I grew up in on Rt. 250 |
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| Gerwigs White Barn is the grocery store that was the nearest grocery story to us growing up |
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| A & W Rootbeer stand was the highlight of childhood |
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| This shop used to be a restaurant, Ron and my first date |
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| This house used to be a silk flower shop, way back when you couldn't buy a very big selection of silk flowers I made all the flowers for our wedding. |
I headed first out past the house I remember from when I was really small. It's hilarious what you remember from being a kid. Here are the memories that are most vivid to me. When I was a kid it seemed so much larger and further from the road then it really is!
- I remember being super sick with Old Fashioned Measles, laying in my parents bed and the whole room spinning - high fever.
- My sister and I would always lay on the floor upstairs when my parents had guests and drop bobby pins down through the floor register - we thought we were pretty funny.
- I remember swinging a pillow around in the living room and of course loosing my balance and falling into a table
- We used to get milk delivered and the Milk Truck ran over our Collie and killed him.
- My dad decided to demonstrate why we shouldn't use firecrackers, put them in a can and lit them while we all watched from a safe distance on the porch. They proceeded to blow-up and the metal can sliced him wide open. We are scared for life but never touched firecrackers.
- I remember playing on the swing set and helping in the garden (at least I thought I was helping)
Groceries
- My mom dropped my sister and I off to pick strawberries when we were pretty young, I think we got paid 25 cents per quart.
- Things were crowded, overlapping and dingy inside, but we didn't have to drive far so we didn't care
- We knew the family that owned it - so it was fun to go there
A & W Rootbeer stand
- We NEVER went out to eat, so it was a real treat
- It was located across from the only Drive-In Movie theater, so we'd stop and get coneys and root beer and take it to the drive-in. The traumatic part was my dad took 1 bite out of every coney before passing them out. I still haven't recovered from that!
The small business
- This was were Ron and I had our first date - following a football game we picked up some food from it when it used to be a restaurant or sub-place.
The blue house
- Back in 'the day' there weren't very many places that sold silk flowers except the Florists, and this house sold silk flower kits to make.
- I made all the bouquets, and flower decorations used at our wedding.
It was good to drive around and remember, to appreciate how hard our parents worked. The town has changed a whole lot, but to me it will always hold many fond memories of public swimming pools, and summer soft ball games - simple pleasures like sipping root beer and making new friends.
And now I find myself back in Ashland just a day later, up in the hospital with a momma who is really sick.
How quickly things change ...
