The inscription on the side mirror of my husband’s Ford F350 says, “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” This makes me think of how big things look to us when we are young and how our memories can deceive us.
For many years my mom told stories of how she and her ten siblings would strip down to their underwear and jump into the huge swim tank in the back yard after a hard day’s work on the farm. She even laughed about how the boys would climb up the nearby windmill and jump into the water. Based on her stories, we all pictured this tank as being pretty large. I mean, it must have been to hold eleven children, right?!
When Mom was in her late 70’s, she asked if my husband and I would consider driving her back to West Texas to look for “the old home place”. We did some research and mapped out about where it should be and off we went. Surprisingly, we found it and the house and tank were still intact and still in use. But as it turns out, the swim tank was a horse watering trough about 4’ wide and 8-10’ long and maybe 3-4’ deep. Hardly the Olympic-sized swimming pool she had made it out to be!
But Mom wasn’t the only one who told “oversized” tales. I myself have told many stories about our home and property in the country outside of Prescott. As I remembered it (from my 7-year-old mind), we had a LOT of land with hundreds of pine trees and hills we could roam around in. My dad had a large workshop up the hill from our house and down the hill was a river that ran through our property.
A few months ago, one of my best friends moved to Prescott and I visited her recently. She wanted to see where I had grown up so we took a trip down Memory Lane. We pulled up in front of the house, which is now inside the city limits, and the owner happened to be outside. She asked if she could help us, so I told her how my dad had built that house. She was so excited and invited us in for a tour. Oh my goodness! Our sprawling country home was about 900 square feet plus the basement, and the river was a tiny creek with hardly a drop of water in it. And yes, Dad’s shop was even way tinier than I had remembered.
It can be a little disappointing when our childhood illusions are shattered. But I’m still glad that we see things “bigger than life” when we are children because they make much better stories that way!
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