Grandma Lu Strolls Down Her Own Memory Lane

 Grandma Lu looked lovingly at her computer and whispered, "Not yet. We still have a lot of unloading of the camper to do. Mercy it takes a lot to load and unload a camper. But I sure do love it. It's just like a little house that we can take anywhere we want to. The high school reunion was such fun and of course, I got to see probably for the last time my home town of Cherokee, Iowa. Cherokee has changed a great deal since I was young, not for the best in my opinion. It still was fun to look at the main street and "see" my old hangouts like the Soda Grille and Penny's. So many places are gone, but my memories are still pretty fresh even at my age. She looked at her phone laying on the end table and said, "Okay, just for a minute. I took a lot of pictures, but probably not enough. Oh yes, the very last picture I took. Just look at the fog hovering over Spring Lake the morning that we left the camp ground. It was beautiful with the sun shining and Fran and I nice and warm in our new warm clothes. We had forgotten that Iowa and South Dakota sometimes gets a might chilly this time of year. So we did a bit of shopping; also included were Bing candy bars. The very best treat only made in Iowa!

She smiled as she thought of her time there with her friends from school and a life time friend and her husband. Of course, there has to be hiccups along the way to make memories. Oh yes, there were hiccups. No Wi fi at least not enough to run anything but this little phone. No television, no I Pads. I realized how addicted I had become to the technical world and wasn't happy about that. Of course, after grilling steaks with friends we soon found out we had no hot water! Yes that was a bill I wasn't expecting, but so very happy my little town had a RV repair shop that made house calls. I guess in our new camper the water heater needs to be plugged in! That was an expensive Oops.

There were so many memories that swirled about the cemetery as I decorated my family's graves. I remember the 'no excuse to miss Decoration Day' when I was a teenager. It was a given that we remember those who paved the way for us and that we respect their legacy. That is a tradition that is difficult to do now because of the miles and our ages.

Then on to South Dakota. We took backroads all the way from Cherokee to Flandreau, South Dakota. Oh how I loved it. This little town reminded me of this, and that little town reminded me of that. I was constantly giving Fran a personal history lesson for three hours. He didn't even mind, because he had never been there before. He got to see buffalo grazing in the fields as well as pipestone showing its cream and pink crowns as it had done for centuries. He had no knowledge of that of course, so I proceeded to teach and tell story after story. The Pipestone rock is soft and can only be "harvested" by American Indians that are enrolled in a tribe recognized by the U.S. government. The pink stone is believed by some to represent the blood of their ancestors and that the  land is a sacred place to all tribes. The smoke from the pipes these folks carve from pipestone is believed to carry their prayers to the heavens. Oh there's my Mike standing by the rushing water and pipestone rocks. That was taken about four years ago.

Oh how I remember the house we bought in Flandreau. It had pipestone dust all over the walls and floors. American Indians had lived there before us and made their prayer pipes there. It was not easy to wash away. It took a lot of family members to help clean before it could be painted.

There's pictures of Carolyn and Gary. We hadn't seen each other for so many years. The last time was at my children's father's funeral, but like she said it seemed like yesterday. We laughed and reminisced the hours away. Oh how good the banana sour cream cake was that she had made for Gary's birthday. I must get that recipe.

Then trip to another cemetery to decorate my late husband's grave. I whispered, "This is only goodbye for now."

On the way back home we took the interstate. The memories I had for those roads were of going to Sioux Falls shopping while the guys watched their football games. There were hurried trips back and forth to Sioux Falls or to see my family in Sioux City, Iowa to celebrate holidays or in times of illness. Mainly my only thoughts of those trips was to keep my speed within the 80 MPH speed limit. Oh I did find myself going a bit over occasionally. She chuckled to herself when she thought of the "boat" of a car that would go as fast as she wanted it to.

 I caught myself frequently looking through Fran's window thinking that we were driving parallel to those old back roads that held so many memories for me. It was a bittersweet trip for sure. 

As Grandma Lu put her phone down she looked at one last picture and grinned. "Not too many people can say they attended their sixtieth high school reunion in their home town. A town that her ancestors helped to settle so many years ago. It was such fun, but now it's time to sweep out the camper and plan next year's trip."

As she got out her broom and dustpan she heard a knock on the door. One of her favorite little girls had come to visit!