Well, So We Meet Again, Mr. Moon

I'm at home in Patch of Paradise tonight.  There's an almost-full moon spilling its silver all over my front yard.  Tomorrow is the full moon.  In fact, this month will have a second full moon on the 31st.  Rare!  Cool!  Soon tonight's moon will send its beams to drench my bedroom.  Then...when the moon hits my eye like a big pizza pie..... but I digress.

This moon has sent me back in time....at least in my memory.....to my girlhood.  No matter what time of year I stare up at a full moon (or almost full in tonight's case), my thoughts drift back to summers gone by.  My cousins and I spent many summer days with our grandparents.   Their 1890s farmhouse was a magical place where young imaginations flourished.  The big cottonwood tree in the front yard snowed its fuzzy seeds.  The biggest maple ever was "base" during "red light green light"  and "hide-n-go-seek" and "cops and robbers."

In the back yard behind the cherry trees stood an enchanted shed.  It had previously been used as a smokehouse.  Windows, a chimney, four walls and a roof....what more could be required?  We named it "the playhouse."

With some discarded items we furnished our dream house, arranged and rearranged the cot, table and chairs.  We even had a broken old refrigerator painted Ford tractor blue.....just the punch of color our play kitchen needed!

We scavenged through the junk pile to find old jars to fill our refrigerator:  Maxwell House Instant Coffee, Aunt Jane's pickle relish, Hellman's mayonnaise, A&P Catsup.  We rarely bothered to wash them out....(Question to self:  was there no need or did we not think of it?  Answer to self:  We knew we were just "playing like"  -->that's the phrase we used instead of "pretending")

Bouquets of red clover, dandelions and various "flowers" graced our table as centerpieces.  We created "play like" meals with lilac leaves and grass and sometimes when the occasion called for it, mud patties.

We labored for hours sweeping, dusting and decorating our beloved playhouse.  We were moms, wives, sisters, daughters, famous actresses, wives of famous men.  I think I was usually married to Donny Osmond....he was NEVER home...and I was stuck taking care of the pretend babies!  Ugh!

The little playhouse is long since demolished...but its memory lives on!  Thanks, moon, for whisking me back to my childhood.

Tomorrow it's back to the Western Edge and cows and horses and hay and Cowboy....tonight though it's all about me and my moon-soaked Patch of Paradise.