As I traveled the old gravel road and turned into an opening that led to what was once a parking area, I thought "Kay is not going to be happy with me". I was driving into tall weeds and new mesquite growth that had thorns. I was in Kay's car and I didn't want to scratch it. As I drove through I could hear the scraping sound on the side of the car. I pulled up in front of the old house and stopped the car. It was getting on toward evening. The day was gray and dreary. A fine mist was in the air, and it was a little windy and cold. I got out of the car and started walking toward the old house. Weeds and grass that had grown up over time and unruly shrubs that had not felt the steel of a hedge trimmer in years were obstructing my path. I pulled open a white picket gate and the picket I had grasped promptly fell off in my hand. As I approached the house, I wondered to my self, "What can be left in a house, long since abandoned and left to crumble under it's own weight? Wasps, rats and rattlesnakes most likely but is that all?"
A few weeks prior to the arrival at this old house I had planned a trip to Concho County with some other family members. One item on the agenda was to visit the old home place where my dad lived when he was growing up. I had not visited the house in over 50 years. I wanted to hear what memories my brothers and sister had of our grandparents and of the old home place. My brother got permission from the current owner to go by and visit the old house. I thought it would be fun to compare those memories we each had and see how our memories might be different from each other.
Picture of the house located on the old home place. My dad helped, along with the family, in building the house. Built around 1920.
Looking at the house now, it looked sad, run down, empty,and robbed of it's previous glory as our grandparent's and my father's home. As I stepped inside the house I saw many years of built up dirt blown in through many cracks and crevices, and also evidence that maybe some kind of critter used this house from time to time other than the wasps, rats and rattlesnakes. A piece of carpet rolled up here, ceiling tiles that had fallen in due to a leak over there. The house had been stripped of furniture and appliances. The old wood burning stove was long gone.
Interestingly enough, it didn't seem to matter to us that all this stuff was missing. My two brothers could still envision grandmother Alice standing in front of that old wood burning stove, the room stifling hot, and the stove hotter still. It was too hot for them to get close to, but grandmother was busy cooking, taking it all in stride like it didn't bother her. And of course she had done that same thing thousands of times before.
My sister and brothers remembered how granddad could reach into the remnants of a fire and pick up a hot coal with his bare hand. His skin was so thick from callouses that it did not even burn him.
My sister remembered sitting on the screened in front porch with grandmother. In her memory the porch was much bigger back then when she was sitting with grandmother. She said grandmother showed her how to weave a basket and how to make flowers out of pieces of women's old stockings. They were dyed colors and then they used them to cover wire that they had twisted into petals. She said they did not get to finish the basket but she still kept it for years. She said maybe that early experience with grandmother Meixner was why she loves to craft so much today.
My cousin Claudia related several memories to me about our grandparents when I sent her an e-mail and asked her about her memories. Her memory of grandmother when she was about 3 or 4 was as follows: "I have one memory of Grandmother Meixner. We were visiting on the home place and I had an accident in my underwear. She put a diaper on me made out of a cup towel and washed my clothes and hung them on the fence to dry. Instead of being embarrassed, I just proceeded to model my new 'outfit' for every one. I can remember Granddaddy was sitting out on the screened in back porch of the house with all the men talking and mother about had a cow because I was prissing around in my cup towel diaper. Granddaddy just laughed and laughed that big belly laugh I remember so well."
About granddad, Claudia remembers: "My favorite memory of Granddaddy is the way he smelled. He always smelled of tobacco and butter mints. He kept both in his pocket and the butter mints in his dresser drawer. Another one is when I was sitting in his lap as about a six year old and he asked me in German if I understood German. He had a cigarette in his mouth at the time and I said I could understand him better if he would take that cigarette out of his mouth. He laughed and laughed. Of course, I had no idea what he was saying to me in German."
Wandering through the four rooms we wondered where everyone slept. Two parents, 7 children, 4 room house. After looking around, we exited through a door on the left or south side of the house. At the corner of the house, just to the right of that door, was the old well or cistern. That is one of the clear memories I had of the house. Only it wasn't so clear after all. I thought it was located in the right front of the house. As it turns out we each had a different memory of where the old well had been located. One memory it did bring back though was that looking down into that well always brought a scary feeling to me. It was deep and dark and dangerous looking. I probably formed that memory when I was very young. I don't know why I was afraid of it. Maybe my older siblings threatened to throw me in. No, they wouldn't have done a thing like that, would they? More likely my parents had admonished me not to be climbing on the ole well because they knew that would be very dangerous for me. Unfortunately we were all so intent on looking at the well that none of us got a picture of it.
Further to the south side of the house was the old garage, the barn and even the out house. We all had memories of the out house. Probably not fond memories though.
Photographs of several pieces of equipment that I believe Dad and Granddad used in farming.
A little further away from the house I came across some old farm equipment. My dad always talked about plowing with horses. This equipment certainly looked like it was from that era. I was very excited to see it because I believe it was the equipment Dad, Granddad, and my uncles used in farming.
I could have stayed and looked around for hours. I loved being on this farm, feeling the presence of my Dad as he worked and played right where I was standing. He spent nearly 20 years, on and off, living and farming on this place. He went off to college at 22 but came back periodically to make money so he could return to school. He continued to do this until he finished and left home for good at the age of 30. Pulling back from my thoughts of the past and slowly coming back to the present, I realized the light was fading fast and it was getting colder.
My brothers, Jack and Harmon, me, and my sister Oneta.
We all gathered again out in front of the house. We talked for a while before we hugged and moved toward our vehicles to leave.
Granddad Harmon Meixner standing in front of the Meixner home sometime around 1960.
As I looked back at the old house one last time, something was different. The tin roof was bright and shiny, the paint glistened white. A peach tree bloomed on one side of the house, and the yard was neat and green. Laughing children could be heard from the front porch and the loud commands to an old plow horse were drifting in from the field. Is that my grandmother I see on the porch waving?
As I had first approached the house I had asked myself "What can be left in a house, long since abandoned and left to crumble under it's own weight?" The answer is simple: Memories! An old house might crumble and fall but the memories remain forever.
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