Visit to Shoals and Loogootee today . . .

Took the day to meander south through the color and visit with mom and dad in Loogootee. It was so nice out, mom and I decided to drive some more and ended up on the 70 or so acres of land that I called home from 1975 - 1982. The house / cabin has been in various forms of disrepair over the past few years, with tenants choosing to make upgrades or to do damage. 

What was once a thriving garden is now overgrown with long, rough grasses and sticker-bushes that used to bear raspberries; the hours and hours spent collecting just the right rocks and building walls to berm the earth are barely visible though still intact; a family of Paw-Paw trees has taken residence just north of the house, standing in various angles shading the ground 20 feet below; and the remnants of outbuildings that housed tools or chickens or goats or pigs now house spiders and certaintly a variety of critters. 

What once was home to a young family of six now only holds vastly divergent memories of that time. We can't deny the significant impact of the experience, and recalling specific events today with mom only scratched at the vault in my mind.