Summer outside - Big and Little

I think we should call these "Big and Little".  One big memory or story, and one little one- a sensory memory or a smell or a flash of something.  Not enough for a full story, but important to the whole experience.

Beth

Big memory- The outside shower.  Dad strapped a hot water heater to a tree, built a platform to stand on, 3 1/2 walls of ply wood, open to the sky.  Maybe it was because I liked to run around with as  little clothes on as possible, but I loved it.  There was space between the boards we stood on, and by the end of the summer, there was green grass growing up through the boards.  When the rest of the world around was so brown and dry, it was so cool to shower under the blue sky, with wet, green grass under your feet.

Little -  the sound of our stereo blasting from the big tree.  speakers propped up in the branches.  I don't remember it there long (maybe it was too dusty), but I remember the first blast. Dad saying, "Ready?! READY?!"  It was awesome.

Claire

Big memory- I remember that we had two tents, a treehouse, a trampoline, and a hammock from which to choose our beds. Mom and Dad had a very small trailer that they slept in, used it for storage, and they sometimes used the oven. The kids were not really allowed in the trailer. At least that's how I remember it. I can understand a rule like that. It was a tiny space, and we were a lot of kids. I remember going in there ONE time. I was having a hard time falling asleep, and went to complain to Mom. She let me in, and heated up some milk on the tiny stove. I also think that was the one and only time I tried warm milk as a sedative. I remember sitting at the tiny built in table, and trying to look around surreptitiously to see as much of the inside as possible, since this was likely my one shot.

Little- Our clothes trunks, and those little bugs that loved to hang out in them. Cold (generic) sodas on the days we got to help the construction. The (3-sided) outhouse. Not always getting fully dressed.

Sarah

Big- What came to mind was getting off the bus and nobody was here and we were going to have to live off the land. Beth organized us: someone gathered miners lettuce, someone had a 1/2 of sandwich leftover from their lunch, we gathered wood (we were going to start a fire with the sun). There wasn't any water but we would just wait for it to rain and store it up (or we could just go to neighbors). We were probably only there for about 5 min before mom showed up and saved us or not depending on how you looked at it.

Little- The rope swing from the tree house.  Was it just cus we were small or was it really high off the ground?

Vivian

Big- My most memorable moment came right after mom and dad started sleeping inside the framed, roofed house.  I needed mom in the middle of the night and crept upstairs to find her.  Being careful not to wake up dad for fear of my life I was moving very quietly and very low to the ground.   As I crawled over to the bed mom leaned over an walloped me upside the head.  She had apparently mistaken my creeping figure for the neighbors dog.  Boy was she surprised. She came over and tried to make up for it, but I was pretty traumatized.

Little- I remember picking through scrap wood to find all the nails.  I remember Beth wielding power tools.  I remember Dad telling us that there was a 'secret room' in the plans and believing him just enough to keep looking for it.

Carrie 

Big- I mostly remember that I used this summer as an excuse to spend all my time at the Porter house. It wasn't that my 16 yr old self was too fancy for the great out doors, I was just really excited about my peer group. I think I slept on the trampoline once or twice, and I remember using the outdoor shower on occasion, but mostly I ate Linda Porter food and watched movies and hung out with Jessica and the Youngclaus boys.  It was one of the best summers of my life, but not for the same reasons as the rest of you guys.

Little- Two. 1) I remember asking Chuck Porter what he thought of our outdoor living arrangements, after they'd come over to check it out.  He said, "I think I greatly underestimated your father's abilities to arrange things for his family."  Amen, Chuck.
2) I remember shooting spiders with an empty nail gun.  The air pressure from the gun is enough to flatten a spider instantly. Pretty entertaining, really.