Missing My Happy Place
Last night I was going through some pictures on my phone and came across the one above. It is one of me on my cousin Matt's antique Allis-Chalmers tractor mowing some grass. The location I was mowing was where we called the "Farm".
The Farm is about 13 acres of land that my aunt and uncle once lived on and owned. They have passed on and now one of my other cousins owns the property and Matt and I used to take care of it for our use of it.
The Farm was my Happy Place not only as an adult, but as a kid growing up. As a kid I would spend the occasional weekend with my aunt and uncle. There place was a poor kids fun park. My uncle ran a scrap yard off the property. Junk cars, tractors and mechanical widgets of all sorts cluttered the 13 acres. It was a little boys playground. My cousins and I would spend daylight to dark playing amongst the junk.
After retiring from military service, we moved back to our hometown. My cousin Matt, also retired from military service, and eventually did the same. We talked with our other cousin who owned our aunt and uncles property and he agreed to let us use it if we took care of it.
We used the old quonset hut made from an oil tanker as a garage, which was its original use to begin with. We tinkered around with stuff to fix them up there. My cousin had some old tractors he stored there as well. Those are what we used to maintain the property.
We kept grass trimmed down, limbs cut from the trails and from around the small pond. We made a shooting range and shot hundreds of rounds on it. We hunted the property, but never got anything. Although there was plenty of wildlife to be seen when we weren't looking for it.
Sometimes I just liked going to the Farm because it was a Happy Place that allowed me to relax and clear my head. I could just sit in the quietness of the countryside, listen to the birds, or the howl of a coyote at night. It was special.
Sadly, a little under four years ago we moved from my hometown to where we are now. It is now a 2 hour drive to visit my cousin Matt and the Happy Place with him. So I don't get to it but maybe once a year on average now.
Matt still takes care of the property and uses it for fixing things and shooting occasionally. However he does miss our time out there together and I do as well.
There is something special about this place. I smile from ear to ear when I am there and enjoy ever second. The childhood memories, the countryside scenary and noise, the present experiences, it all combines to make it...
...MY HAPPY PLACE
Thanks for reading,
Joe
Note: Image is my own. Camera unknown
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Thank you !
Having a physical Happy Place that you can return to is so good, many of us only have it in our memory. I can feel how much you enjoyed yourself at your Happy Place and how much you miss it. In a way, I think it may be more difficult for Matt because he's in the same place but minus your company, a bit like an empty nest, so I guess he must be really pleased when you do visit.
Yes, I miss his company tremendously as well. He is like a brother to me. We talk regularly on the phone. He will let me know when he goes to the Farm and what he did. I can tell he misses my company there as well.
I used to love going to my aunt and uncles farm as well. There's just something cool about all that land and equipment and stuff I guess. I drove by it just the other day and it was nice to see it still there being used even if I didn't stop.
Yeah, it was a blast for sure.
That looks like a really nice place to spend some time!
It is, or at least to me it is.
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Lots of love your way brother.
Thank you @innerblocks and @wesphilbin. Much appreciated.
What a cool tractor! I think those old models are awesome! Sounds like a fabulous place to grow up, and thanks for sharing your memories! 😊
You must be killin' it out here!
@thekittygirl just slapped you with 1.000 PIMP, @coinjoe.
You earned 1.000 PIMP for the strong hand.
They're getting a workout and slapped 1/2 possible people today.
Read about some PIMP Shit or Look for the PIMP District
It was a fabulous place to grow up. I learned a lot from my aunt and uncle working in that scrap yard.
It’s impossible for a child not to be happy in a place like the one you describe. Nostalgia is sometimes like a needle in the heart, but it's nice to remember the past with a smile on your lips. I'm glad to know that you can go back there even if it's not as often as you would like.
Wish I could move the Farm to me. That would be nice. LOL
That's a great happy place! It's looks like a nice and quiet one as well! It's important to have one, or life can seem to drown you in problems...
Once it cools off, I would like to find one here.
Perhaps plan a visit Twice rather than just a year if you can help it.
The more I think about it, the more I'd like to have a piece of productive farm land.
I haven't been yet this year and need to get there. Probably will go when it gets cooler this summer.
Isn't it wonderful how a place can both generate and retain memories that we can dip back into whenever we think of or visit the place? There was a junkyard in the hills on the outskirts of the city that me and some of the neighborhood boy used to play in as kids. I haven't been there since my teens, but can remember the sense of discovery as we explored the different structures contained therin. Good times.
I tell people all the time, it was DisneyLand for a poor kid.