Fern Hill

.... Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

We are prisoners of time ..but Memory is a cousin of Eternity .

what follows is not chronologically correct , at least I don't believe i got it right after all these years . Its more or less a reasonably confluence of good guess work , written clues and well meaning Hyperbole . So please bear with me. As i slip loose the chains of time and free my Memory.

Those early years in Multnomah were very pleasant for me . School was definitely fun ..but it was the weekends and summer that held most of my interest .

While school developed with a pattern of predictability , it was the time away from School that was a buffet to feast upon .

School ended the First Week in June , just in time for the Rose Festival , we returned to School the day after Labor day . These three golden months were not all play ..both Bob and I had paper routes and we both worked in the nearby fields picking Strawberries , Beans and Blackcaps . But it seemed like the misery of work made the play all that more special .

There was unorganized play with our friends , and Organized play with our friends , there was play at home and play at night , there was Overnight outings at friends homes , and Friends over night with us . Trips to our cabins on the Coast . And family vacations .

These early years were filled with Firsts for me , My first job , my first fish , my first hunting trip, First trip out of state . First homemade bomb , first bicycle , first brush with Arson .

By the end of the Third Grade I was finding mobility , and direction for my life . The mobility was my new bike and the direction was usually down ...down was always good for biking the steeper hills turned my bike into a walking accessory .

Having a bike expanded my centre of impact from the Block ..to as far as Lee's House to the West and Hillsdale community to the East . The little town of Multtnomah was a frequent target of my wanderings .

There were sp many places that are dear to my heart / memory , each of them deserves some attention ..from the Coastal valleys , to the woods just around the corner each place was a teacher and I was a willing pupil ...