When I was six...

I would tell myself elaborately long detailed stories that had no beginning and no ending.  Much like life, the various pieces of a story, any story, are like the various uneven lengths of thread woven into some wonderful tapestry.  My stories that I would tell myself, aloud, were like chapters in some unnamed novel.

When I was six, my brother was eight.  We were still each other's playmates but he was faster than I.  He was tougher and rougher than I was.  He was a boy and I was not.

When I was six I was even more sensitive and more clumsy than I am now.  I was a pale, thin, befreckled child with long, long blonde hair and a huge grin.  I loved mommee, but I was daddy's girl.

Weekend Assignment #40:  Celebrate John M. Scalzi's daughter, Athena's 6th birthday by sharing a story from when you were six.

Earlier this year, my parents had taken a trip back up to Pennsylvania.  They visited with the Mennonite family that rented the old farmhouse to us when I was six.  This was outside of York Springs, PA (close in to Gettysburg).  The missus remembers my brother and I as being "spindly children".

What I remember of Elmira and Sandy and their numerous hardy children most was when they would come to cut, bale, and stack the hay.  I was six at that time.  I would try to drag around the hale bales and they would chide me not to hurt myself and so I would perch out of the way and watch everyone else.

Elmira would bring snacks, plastic baggies of sliced green bell peppers.  For years, whenever I had bell peppers, I would think of the Friendly Mennonite Family From the Farm.  I would taste the coolness of the juicy peppers against the dustiness of my throat.  My nose would recall the dry chaff filled air.

When I was six, perched close to the action but safely out of the way, my clothes and hair would fill with bits and pieces of scratchee dry hay.  When I was six, I loved the loud clanking machine that would move the bales up to dump them into the loft.  When I was six, the farm was the best place to be.

When I was six, I was a very happy kid.