I was born in 1970 in Madison, Wisconsin. My parents lived on an island in the middle of Madison, it housed one building and had 1 little road leading in. Now, it's been developed and the lovely little lake surrounding it has been filled in. I still remember my Mom taking me there to show me the little park on the outskirts of the island that had this amazing slide made up of rolling metal bars (hey, I was a toddler and things are just cool, ya know?).
My parents met at UW-Whitewater, my Mom was there for her "Mrs Degree" and my Dad was working thru 2 majors and 2 minors, one of the top of his class. In the late 60s, it wasn't uncommon for a woman to go to school and end up dropping out to get married. I'm grateful my Dad finished his schoolwork tho, he's an extremely smart man and my own husband had to measure up to that example he set.
After they got married, they moved to Madison and my Dad worked at the university there in the biology department and helped teach classes when needed. They lived there until I was around 9 months old and decided to move back to the country where my Dad had been raised - a small town about 10 minutes away from Whitewater. They purchased a farm and those are my first memories.
I remember that farm so well, it was where I grew up, they owned it for close to 40 years. When I was little, we'd play hide and seek, build pretend houses in the over-grown field next to the house, catch water in cups on the front porch when it rained. I used to pretend to be a super hero and jump off the porches - the whole 2 feet jump down seemed like a canyon for me to overcome.
I was 7 when my parents told me that I was going to have a sibling. I wanted another puppy but nope, got a brother instead. Star Wars had come out on my 7th birthday and I would play the record and dance around my brother's playpen, singing made up words to the music. When he was older, we'd pretend to be Luke and Leia, escaping Darth Vader and saving the day. Darth would always be "just around" the corner of the barn and we'd run around and around, in and out of the farm buildings, up and down the ladder into the loft, jumping out into hay piles to escape. Yeah, basic 70s life I guess.
Winters were hard, we'd get such huge week long storms that would block the roads so school would be cancelled and we'd sled down one hill, over the road and halfway up another drift over into the field on the other side of the road. Sledding down snowdrifts were a game for us, we'd aim for the frozen puddles and see how far we could slide without crashing into the tree or snow fence.
Summers were hot but we'd walk to the swimming hole, called the Mill Pond. There used to be a printing mill and damn set up back in the 60s that created a pond with the run off. Snapping turtles were a danger when you'd jump off the far end of the dock and if you were brave and gave into peer pressure, you'd try to touch the bottom with each jump. We would swim to the far end of the pond, crawl over the fence there and buy 10 cent pops from the gas station, sneak them into our suits and swim back - if the lifeguards caught you with pops that weren't bought from the canteen, you could get into trouble.
Growing up was awesome, we would ride our bikes everywhere, wade in the stream down the road, climb up the huge tree off the side of the corn field (our tree hideout), play in the rock hideout (where the farmers would dump huge rocks found while digging up their fields), climb onto the roofs of the farm buildings and just be kids. We were taught not to hitchhike, to respect our elders, to say please & thank you.
As I grew up, I was a handful - had a bit of a rough streak as a teen but I think I ended up pretty good. I was 22 when I started dating my future husband, 24 when we moved in together, 28 when we married and 31 when I had our son. I raised my son the same way I was raised - minus the smacks. So far, he's turned out pretty good too.
I'm thankful my Mom got her Mrs Degree. I'm grateful that my Dad is amazing and intelligent. I can't imagine my life without my brother and I'm so proud of him.
My name is Kathryn, I was born in 1970 and these will be my stories...
