I had forgotten. I had forgotten long night drives in our unairconditioned car, going to Frost in the fall when the earth smelled black and the grass along the roadside still grew tall and green in our headlights. I tightly closed my eyes in fear of the cars coming so near us on the other side of the narrow country road. Small as I was, I hung my chin and fingertips over the edge of the open backseat window so I could see………that last curve into Frost that meant “WE’RE HERE! WE’RE HERE!” I was “beside myself” with eagerness: going to the FARM; going to see my aunts and uncles; going to see all my cousins!
Sandy Moore’s memoirs awakened precious childhood memories. I was a city girl. Going to the farm was filled with freedom and far horizons. Sandy’s stories of her country life, her farm animals and pets, her older sister Rose, her beloved Daddy, and Mama in her Southern glory are filled with humor, tender sadness, and love, pure and simple.
Sandy writes with gentleness: her childhood memories are written as a central Texas child speaks. The gentleness remains as the reader suddenly realizes the child Sandy is changing. She matures with the same humor and simple love, recognizing the truths of her family.
Your realization comes with this warm and deeply thoughtful book, that “you’re here! you’re here!” How could you have forgotten? This is a journey for your soul.
I love to remember Frost as it was when I was very young. I moved back here in 1974 and raised my family here. Sandy and I don’t remember everything the same, but that’s the way with memories. I found it interesting that she felt like she lived in the country. I could see her house, and still can, across “the lake”, from my home place on the corner of Garitty and S. Front. A good read which shows again how we knew folks only through our shared experiences, which constituted only a fraction of their lives.