Lockport, Illinois

So I decided I just felt like telling a story today.  Just a memory that I felt like sharing.

When we lived in Lockport, Illinois I was about 8 years old, and very, very afraid of thunderstorms.  We had many thunderstorms and even some tornadoes during our time living there, and so you can imagine how I dealt with that.  I can remember various times going and hiding in a corner under a blanket whenever a big thunderstorm was going on thinking that the corner in between the couch and the fireplace was the safest place to be.  We did have a basement that would have been safer, but our basement was a scary place in that house and I never wanted to go down there without someone else with me.  Besides, we were always finding little frogs down there, and they would freak me out.  Yes I was/am a scaredy cat of many things! 

I remember this one storm in particular when Dad was at work and Mom had all 6 of us kids out shopping.  As we were driving from store to store, the weather started to get really bad.  I can't remember if their was a tornado warning that day or not, but it looked possible.  So Mom pulled in to the big warehouse store, I can't remember which one, but I do remember that as we were all running inside, lightening struck the parking lot right behind us!  I still remember how loud it was and how scared I was.  But Mom was so good and kept us all calm.  She took us over to where the magazines were and pulled some out for us to look at while she tried to talk to one of the store clerks and figure out if there was any warning or news about the weather.  Turns out there was a tornado that had touched down.

Eventually the storm calmed and we went home, but when we got there, we were quite surprised at what we found.  The screens had been blown off the windows, the power was out, and our carpets were soaking wet from where the windows were open.  We kids were initially pretty happy because since the power was off, that meant we had to eat all the popsicles in the freezer so they wouldn't melt and make a mess.  But then, I forget where Mom had to go to get help, but she left me and Tyler there at the house while she took the rest of the kids with her.  I was really scared that the storm would come back and then we'd be all alone, but Tyler sat with me in front of the basement door so we could run down there if it did indeed come back.  I don't know if he even remembers, but Tyler was so good to me while we waited there.  He just played with me and helped me not think about any reason I would have to be scared.  I don't remember what else happened the rest of that day, but I still remember how my brother took good care of me and kept me safe.  I love my older brother very much and I'm sad that I don't tell him that more often.  Love you Ty!

I remember that house in Lockport for a lot of different things.  It was where Mom first had us help her "mop" the floor by "skating" around the kitchen on wet soapy old towels.  There was a huge yard that had a pond, forest (which may have actually been a small grouping of trees, but to me it was a forest), and even a golf hole for when Dad felt like golfing haha!  There was an otter that lived in our pond sometimes, and we thought we were so sneaky when we could glimpse him through the windows.  There were also two ducks, Fluffy and Canisse, that would frequent the pond.  They were of course married and we hoped they would have baby ducks in our yard, but they never did haha!  We would make up so many stories for them!  And then there were the various battles of the snow forts!  Dad trained us in the proper construction of snow forts and then we would snow fight until we were freezing!  Those were some awesome forts!  When there wasn't any snow, we would use the big boxes from moving to make tunnel forts.  Forts were not in short supply to say the least!  And then there was the Strawberry Shortcake record player that we would listen to.  I think we only had one record left and that was "Oh Sheila!"  We would turn that on and dance around like crazy! I think that was also the first time that we watched "The Sting" (even if we didn't actually understand what was going on) and we would use the kitchen magnet letters to have our own little poker games.  What rebels we were!  haha!  And last but not least...the Little Tykes hoop.  We would set up my mom's step so that we could launch off it and have a family dunk contest.  My brothers got some serious air!  I think we used to have some pictures to document the awesomeness, but we need to find them again.

So maybe the first part of this post was a story, but the last part is just fun memories that I love to think on and hope made you smile a little bit.  Take some time this week to think of some of your fond memories as a kid!