whatyareckon

Where do the years go!? I am not sure but they go and they go fast. The Lord has been so good to me in that unlike Job I have not had it that bad. I was reared in

southern Iowa just outside Ottumwa,

west of the airport turnoff.

Getting to our house you would turn right off the highway and onto the Highland Center road. Not far down this road you would first pass Mr. Cellars house on the left and almost immediately go down the hill and then up again. You would then go a mile or so and over the railroad tracks and soon after the tracks you would come to an intersection. At the intersection you would turn right and just up that gravel road on the left was our house.

That was home! Back then the Highland Center road was a dirt road and after a rain it was a mud road. However, when I was a teen, they asphalted the Highland Center road all the way from the highway to Highland Center. Nevertheless, the road past the house I grew up in is still gravel.

In this journal I just want to relate a time about 60 years ago when I was just a boy. Many hot and humid Iowa summer days I would take my bike out to the gravel road and ride just a short distance south to a big tree which stood on the opposite side of the road from our house. It was nice and cool under that tree protecting me from the hot Iowa summer sun. That tree was my pretend gas station. Did you have a pretend place when you were young? I would spend hours pretending to fill my (bike) car and doing whatever else that could occur at a gas station. Now, just one day from being 71 going to the gas station is not as enjoyable.

Yes, I have grown up (and out) but for some reason this big shade tree (no longer there) which served as my gas station was impressed on my mind this morning just before I got out of bed. Why? I do not know but perhaps to just share with you a memory that has stayed with me all these years and perchance jog a memory that lies hidden somewhere in your mind.

One of the blessings of growing old/er is the memories of days gone before. Make the most of the time you have; for “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” James 4:14.