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Directions:It was so blazing HOT in Holtville that the ground cracked! At least, that's the way my 12-year old mind remembers it. I'm sure it had something to do with the watering regiment, too.
Seemed like whenever we went to Holtville to visit the Herring Family, Jeff and I waited for the sun to start going down because that meant that the cousins would be coming over for some fun.
When Jeff and I were young, so were Aunt Doris and Uncle Ed's kids. We didn't hang out with the adults! No sir! We played hide and seek in the dark with "Stevie", Stan, Cheryl, Pat and John every single time we went there. SO FUN!!
I remember sitting in the trailer with Mama Herring in my parent's driveway one morning. I told her I loved Randy Dopp. She told me not to marry him. She shared with me that she had been engaged to someone else before she married Papa Bear. She didn't want me to jump into something that I would regret. Although she liked Randy, she told me he wasn't "the one". She also said I was too young to get engaged and that I needed to wait for the right man to come along.
Papa Herring (as we used to call him before Code renamed him Papa Bear) was a favorite because he loved to laugh. He also had treats on top of his freezer to share with all the kids. I also loved his gravely voice. My dad shares that trait with him, now.
I remember that Mama Herring cooked all day long. Every meal from scratch. Pealing potatoes with a knife. This was foreign to me. I washed dishes while she and Mom started the noon meal immediately after the breakfast table was cleaned up. Non-stop cooking and cleaning. At the time, I wanted to run around outside instead of working in the kitchen but looking back, they are memories I cherish. Besides, remember I said it was blazing HOT outside... Sucked the energy right out of us.
I didn't care much for being called "the girl". It's my thought now that Mama Herring didn't want to allow herself to get too attached in case my mom and dad ever parted ways. After a time, "the girl" stopped and I felt loved by her. She was an amazing, hard-working woman of great character. I wish I could still enjoy her company.
I remember the spigot in the kitchen. The one that looked like it was for hooking a hose up to. The one that was the "good" water.
I LOVED my Aunt Doris. She was full of laughter. She became a Godmother to Hallie. She left us way too early.
Uncle Ed and frequent b-b-q's. YUM! He's fantastic.........I wish he lived closer. I miss him and wish he'd learn how to text.
The bathroom on the breezeway.......and the "bar", too. Sodas in the fridge in the fridge in the bar.
Mama Herring wrapping a sock of some wretched smelling something or the other, around my neck when I had another of my many throat infections.
Looking back, I loved every moment of the visit we had out there. I wish we all lived so much closer to one another.
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