Has there ever been a time in your life when you dreamed of being someone else? When the daily stresses of life start to wear me down, I have this one particular dream. Don't get me wrong, I love my life, but sometimes I yearn for the simpler, less chaotic days of the early 1900's. However, I don't want to be just anyone; I want to be my late grandmother.
My grandmother, Margaret Crawford, was born on the family ranch in Palo Pinto County, Texas in 1912. Her grandfather, S. O. Crawford, had purchased the ranch in the mid-1800's and named it Little Keechi Creek Ranch, due to the fact that the Little Keechi Creek ran through the property.
I have splashed barefoot through the slow ripples of this creek numerous times while trying not to slip on the moss-covered rocks below. To me, this is the most beautiful place on earth. It's tranquility and solace makes it easy to imagine being my grandmother during her youth. So, I lie back and I dream. I will share a day's journey of my grandmother's youth when she still lived at home and perhaps this will give some insight as to why I like to return here, if only in my dreams.
In my fantasy, I am Margaret and she and her five sisters, Eunice, Simpy, Lois, Bernice and Helen, wake to another hot blistery Texas summer morning. The fresh aroma of Mama's homemade biscuits causes us to leap up from our beds and race down the dark hardwood stairs that creak with each step we take.
The creak in the stairs reminds me of the labor of love my daddy exerted when he built this ominous two-story house with the brilliant red roof back in 1902. Some thought we lived in a mansion, and I suppose to most passersby, we did. But to us, it was only home.
At home, after breakfast was eaten and dishes cleaned and put away, the six of us girls had chores to do while Daddy went back into the fields to work. We took turns doing various chores, depending on which day of the week it was.
