En Guard

While doing the dishes the other day, the girls somehow hatched a plan to duel with kitchen utensils. Why not?

I took these pictures through the window and didn't realize the sun was shining into the lense, hence the "fog."

Watching their battle, I was transported back in time about 35 years (gasp!) to my grandmother's farm in New London, Iowa. I spent every summer there from about age 10 until my grandmother's death when I was 16.

My cousin Bill is just 18 months older than I and was my summer companion. He and I dissected weeds with our pocket knives, playing a game of surgery, if I remember correctly. We built "toad houses" in a gravel pile just off the lane, using odd pieces of pipe for chimneys that really worked and even landscaping and adding swimming pools.We dueled with sticks, climbed in the hayloft and even tortured grasshoppers one summer (that's another story!).Bill was the friend I never had as a kid; someone who accepted me for who I was, who shared the same ideas of fun, and who helped me get back at my sister.

One of my fondest memories was playing bumper cars with old tire inner tubes. We'd put them around ourselves (think hula hoops) and run full tilt at each other, bouncing off and careening around the yard.
Sometimes it's hard to believe how many years have passed. Bill is a farmer now himself, with 3 kids and 500 acres. Even though we don't see each other often, I'll always think of him as one of my best friends.