The Summer of 1958, continued

Grandpa and Grandma Russell stayed in the mountains from early spring to late fall that year.  They pulled up an old trailer dad bought from Grandpa Johnson.  Grandma and Grandpa Russell lived in it until they got their cabin built.

            Grandpa dug a hole at the back end of the meadow, built an outhouse, and painted it white.  It looked like a tiny house.  It had a door and a wooden floor and wooden seat with a hole in the middle.  The walls didn’t come all the way up to the roof, so air could flow through.  Bugs did, too, and dad finally put screen up there.  Every day grandma collected ashes from the fire and put them in a bucket in the outhouse.  Everyone poured a shovel full of ashes in the hole when they were done going to the bathroom to keep the smell down and the flies out.  Gale always worried that a snake would get into the hole in the outhouse and climb up and bite her.  It never happened, of course, but she was glad when they finally got indoor plumbing.

Grandpa strung a heavy wire along the trail that led to the top of the hill, so Grandma Russell could hold onto it and little children wouldn’t fall over the side.  Then he began to clear the meadow so he could plant a garden.  He dug a ditch that began way up the creek at the log crossing and ran all the way down to the meadow.  Then he planted the garden with corn.  He worked so hard that he made himself sick and it took a long time for him to get better.

            Dad brought Mom and Keith and Gale up as soon as school ended in June.  They stayed in a tent at the base of the hill.  It wasn’t long before the monsoon began and it rained almost every day.  Mom spent that whole summer chasing muddy kids out of the tent and trying to keep them dry.

Perhaps one of the reasons it was so hard was that mom was pregnant, and as the summer progressed she grew bigger and bigger and more and more uncomfortable.  Sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground was never easy, but try doing it when you’re five months pregnant!

Every morning mom would get Keith and Gale dressed and ready to go outside, then she would clean up the sleeping bags and straighten out the tent while dad made breakfast on the camp stove.  Grandma and Grandpa Russell would be up, enjoying the cool of the morning in the shade of their big sycamore tree under which the trailer was parked.  When mom would come out of the tent, already hot and frazzled, she would see Grandma, sitting serenely in her chair.  Grandma would smile and say, “Isn’t it a glorious day?” and mom would think, (but never say), “Yes, if you’ve been sleeping in a real bed and have a sink and bathroom and mirror so you can get clean!”