More Memories

My friend, Anny that I heard from recently, put me in touch with another old friend. While Anny and her family were in RR, they stayed at a huge cabin in the Upper Valley. She said that one morning people came up on their porch and looked in their windows – fortunately Anny and Bear were dressed (actually Bear is an old window flasher from way back, but I will save that for another blog). They invited the people into their cabin and found out that the people were old Red Riverites that knew the Barkers "way back when".

Way back before my parents built the cabin up Bitter Creek, they stayed in town and worked at the Green Mountain Lodge in RR. Mike’s family owned the lodge, and his grandparents had a sporting goods store next door. Mike and his brothers were teenagers then, who came to spend the summers with their grandparents. My brother and I were just two and three years old at the time. These teenage boys, who had never been around babies, were put in charge of Craig and me. I am sure Craig was an angel to take care of (the dead bird and other things he put in his pockets were a bit of a mess, but Mom was the one who dealt with those things). According to Mike, they had some problems with me. You would think that Craig would be the streaker in the family, but it was me that liked to undress myself on Main Street. Mike tells that he and his brothers were constantly gathering me and the clothes that I just shucked and carrying us to my mom. Mike told Anny that his family still uses the word "nicketts" for napkins because that is what I use to call them.

Mike now has a cabin in RR and I see him from time to time. He always hugs me and treats me like a little sister. I love that feeling. Of course, I do not remember when I was two years old and Mike took care of me, but I do remember he and his brothers as I got a little older. They all joined the military (different branches) like their dads. I thought they were handsome, but maybe it was just that they always paid lots of attention to me even when I was just a tag along kid. Girls like that sort of thing.

I have lots of good memories from the Green Mountain Lodge. My parents bought the lodge years later, and we lived there. Maybe I will blog some memories of the lodge next.