Eugene Days in the Yard

I Found these pictures I had taken as a teenager. I’m guessing that it’s around 1985. It shows some of our yard (front and back). You guys might not remember it then because you were little, but we had allot of fun there. It looks like a really hot day by the clothing.

This picture only shows the far left corner of the back yard. To the right is a grassy area with a play fort including a swing that Jeff made in Jr. high wood shop.

That’s Robert playing in the sandbox that was made with an old tire. Paul and he would make roads in it for their hot wheel cars in it. I think that’s a bucket of water by him so he could pour it on the sand and make the sculpted roads hard enough for his cars to run on.

Back by the fence, is Paul with his friend, Patrick Cantrell. His older sister, Christina, and I were best friends. I’m guessing they are playing cars too. They would run them along the fence railing. I took the picture from the deck.

Here is a picture of Robert giving Christina a horsey-back ride in the front yard. I think they are about to go through the sprinkler which is running back behind them.

I remember spending some Saturday mornings weeding that yard with all the rest of you guys doing Super– Saturday chore around me. Then we got to do something fun, like go to a movie, Go to the roller-skating rink. Also Saturday morning, Mom would cook waffles with wheat fresh from the wheat grinder.

(I’m calling Robert “Robert” in this because he absolutely did not like to be called any nick names like “Rob” at the time.)

A childhood memory with Dad

Mom gave me some pictures to scrapbook of an outing we took as children. I only remembered some things and thought it would be nice to scrapbook what our car rides were like since I don't think they are journaled anywhere else, so I took a little creative license.

OREGON WILDLIFE
SAFARI 1980
Jeff was 10, I (Jana) was 9, Paul was 4, and Rob was 2.


THE TRIP THERE

It was a long 2 hour trip, for us kids in the Brown family Station-wagon. Long enough for the usual “Dog Party’s” that went along with most family trips:

Jeff and I argued about Jeff’s “spring legs” that were squishing me. Dad saying, “Jeff, control your legs”, and Mom asking, “Do we need to put your “spring legs” in the trunk?”. Dad asked, “Shall we tie you to the top of the car?”.

Paul would sneeze so hard that it made Dad jump. Then Dad would ask if he had sneezed himself inside out. (Or maybe that was a different trip.)

Robert, who was 2, pointed out 57 Chevys all the way there. He was smart from the get go.

And we joked and laughed and played car games (like the alphabet sign and license plate game, and I see something that…” all the way there.



THE SAFARI

When we got there, Dad got strict and told us, “Let’s be quiet, now!” I think we must have still been having a dog party.

Dad was a professional photographer at the time and had a very nice, expensive camera that he took pictures of the animals with. Funny but he did'nt get any of us. That was probably just because this was a drive through safari. There was a dirt road that we drove on right through their territory. There were no fences or barriers, so we could get right up close to the animals. Dad had rolled down his window to take pictures of them. We saw buffalo, camels, and Zebras, which Dad got some great pictures of. But the one I remember is the emu.

The Emu

Then we got to an emu. He looked so funny to us because we had never seen one before.

Well, that Emu thought we were just as interesting as he was to us, so he came closer to check us out. This was great! It was fun for us kids and Dad got great pictures of him!

The Emu got closer and closer, until he was right at our car window. Dad was still shooting pictures, and getting great shots of him. We thought this was a blast.

Then Mr. Emu stuck his head right in the car window and grabbed Dad’s camera strap!

It became a tug-of -war between Dad and the Emu. And that Emu had a pretty strong grip! Dad finally pulled the camera free, and started pushing the Emu out of the window. He was rolling up the window, which was done with a hand crank at the time. As he was rolling up, the Emu kept sticking his head back through the window.

When He finally had the window up, with the Emu out, I remember us driving off in quite a hurry.

I think we had a little car celebration with yeas and laughter.

(I don’t think Dad liked the laughter very much.)

This is written from the memories of Jana, with creative license due to the time gap between the event and this journaling. If anyone remembers differently, please contact me so I can update the story.