I\u2019m sitting on the Lake of the Woods in Warroad, Minnesota.\u00a0 The water is so calm and clear.\u00a0 The sky is a calm light blue with a few storm clouds to the South.\u00a0 The wind is cool coming off the water.\u00a0 The campers and boats are out in force on this American long weekend.<\/p>\n
The lake itself brings back memories.\u00a0\u00a0 When I was a kid my Mom and Grandma would bring us to the restaurant with our bathing suits.\u00a0 After lunch my sister and I would change and head out to the water and swim.\u00a0 I can still see my Mom and Grandma watching from their seats inside.\u00a0 The water was absolutely freezing but we didn\u2019t care.\u00a0 Now there are signs, \u201cNo swimming allowed.\u201d\u00a0 The lake shore has been dug out for the boats to dock so it is no longer safe to swim.\u00a0 It is progress, but sad.\u00a0 The restaurant has been beautifully renovated and expanded.\u00a0 And there are more play structures.\u00a0 But the memories are still here every time I come.<\/p>\n
Warroad is where my Mom was born and lived most of the years before marrying my Dad.\u00a0 But the house out in the country is really where the memories are kept.\u00a0 No one lives there anymore.\u00a0 My Mom\u2019s brother and sister keep the yard enough so you can drive in and walk around.\u00a0 My Aunt has her flower beds, it is her retreat.\u00a0 If you walk out through the field to just beyond the tree line there is a beautiful creek, or as my Grandma always called it, the \u201cCrick\u201d.\u00a0 The garage is still there and holds a thousand memories.\u00a0 My Grandpa died a few months before I turned 4.\u00a0 But I have quite a few memories of him, for the amount of time we had together.\u00a0 When I\u2019ve discussed these memories with my Mom and my Aunt we discovered that these memories are from the spring and summer that I was 2 and turning 3.<\/p>\n
I remember my Grandpa taking me out to the garage, him opening the doors and seeing the whole floor covered in baby chicks in their warmers.\u00a0 The smell comes back to me like yesterday and it\u2019s comforting.\u00a0 I remember him putting them in my hands and the little feet poking me.\u00a0 I was amazed and a little frightened all at once.\u00a0 We would also go out to the garage to build things.\u00a0 Well, Grandpa gave me a little hammer, a piece of wood and some nails.\u00a0 He was doing the building or fixing.\u00a0 But that stuck with me.\u00a0 And when I go into the garage his work shelf is still there with some of his tools.\u00a0 It takes me back in time instantly.\u00a0 I also remember him taking my sister and me to the store.\u00a0 We climbed up in his light blue truck and had to take turns sitting by Grandpa.\u00a0 He took us up the road a few miles to the little store in Swift.\u00a0 It was so exciting just to be with Grandpa.\u00a0 And from the days of seatbelts not being required; I guess my Grandparents had issues with me sticking my head out the window while they drove.\u00a0 So, one day I was sitting by the flowerbed at the back of the house and I asked Grandpa why he had no hair.\u00a0 He told me that one day he stuck his head out the window when he was driving really fast and it his hair just flew away.\u00a0 I never stuck my head out the car window again.\u00a0 I remember waking up in the early morning and seeing him sitting in his chair in the living room and I would climb in his lap and we would wait for the rest of the house to wake up.<\/p>\n
Grandparents are so incredibly important, if you are fortunate enough to have them.\u00a0 I missed out a lot from my Grandfathers, them both being gone by the time I was 4.\u00a0 But I wonder if I treasure the memories that I do have so much more because that\u2019s all I\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
Well, I have to go find my children.\u00a0 They are off making new memories with their Dad and Great Aunt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m sitting on the Lake of the Woods in Warroad, Minnesota.\u00a0 The water is so calm and clear.\u00a0 The sky is a calm light blue with a few storm clouds to the South.\u00a0 The wind is cool coming off the … Continue reading