First Steps

I took my first steps on this concrete walkway in front of my grandmother's house.

It was a different house back then, back before my relatives tore the old place down with crowbars and their bare hands. Different concrete, even. I remember watching as my grandfather mixed cement in his wheelbarrow and spread it smoothly to fix the broken places, probably back in the 1970's.

Years before, though, back in the late 1960's, we were visiting at the farm, and I took my first official steps. There are pictures somewhere. There was apparently someone on camera duty that day, ready to capture my first jaunt on two feet.

The cedar trees to the right of the dirt driveway (the driveway is white because it is sand, for those of you unfamiliar with Florida) also date back to the late 1960's. I was a baby when my grandparents planted the young trees all along the drive and back along the fence back to the barn. They are pretty impressive trees now.

Those woods to the left of the drive weren't even there when I was born. You could see clean across that field to the road. My aunt and uncle bought that corner of the world and let it return to trees and wildlife when I was a wee tot. Amazing how quickly the trees grow, when left to their own devices.