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Marla Bishop: Summers End, Bears, a Granddaughter Visits and Hitchhiking

September 17th, 2014

Filed under Community, Crawford, Featured, Marla's Moments, Opinion

Marla’s horses last spring – Marla photo

Summers End, Bears, a Granddaughter Visits and Hitchhiking

By Marla Bear Bishop – Fruitland Mesa/Crawford Country correspondent

            Tell me it isn’t so. The summer is just about over; cool air in the morning confirms it without consulting the calendar. Nice rains are blessing us and one of these days, hopefully not this month that rain will turn to snow.

I’ve heard the wild flowers and raspberries are still thriving in the high country. Guess the bears that have been living in town and up on the mesas don’t know the sweet spots. This wasn’t my summer for seeing this for myself but the reports are vivid in the telling.

Can’t wait to get some peach picking in this week, along with some corn freezing, to be enjoyed during the winter months. With the later than usual crop of just about everything we can extend the season a bit.

            Thanks to all the donkeys who don’t want to participate in parades lately, Stormy the little pony got a workout this summer. My granddaughter from the Great North West spent a few hours a day gentling him up for the big day, the Delta County Fair parade. That tiny gelding doesn’t think much of me, but he lights up for her. What a great job they both did on the trek down Bridge Street. A big thank-you to former Delta County Fair Rodeo Queen, Lindsey Todd, who took time out from her busy summer schedule to come help teach Stormy the gentlemanly way to load into the trailer.

            Another series of events that my granddaughter enjoyed was dining out at all the North Fork eateries. I think we hit every single one twice. Our breakfast treats came from the Flying Fork Bakery in Paonia, along with a fancy dinner and a lunch. She was fond of P. J.’s Pub in Hotchkiss, begging to go to Sushi Night! Our most memorable event took place at the Boardwalk in Crawford when Yai Yai forgot her purse and Donna and Gill let her “pay later.” Even an eight-year-old child saw the value and unusualness of this kindness. There is nothing like small town living to make you feel the heartbeat of community.

            I would like to discuss the issue of our reliance on motor transportation. Here in the North Fork we are in the deepest &*^) without it. I won’t name the mechanic who kept my truck for over a month and failed to mend the machine but let it be said, I won’t be going back again with any other vehicle. I understand my truck is old enough to go drink at a bar by itself, but if you can’t fix it, say so up front and don’t bull crap me for weeks on end. Thank-you if you lent me your car, Bad Dog Ranch, D Bar Ranch, Sponsellers, thank-you if you picked me up hitchhiking on the road, at the store, or if I was just sitting in your car when you came out of the dentist’s office. Thank-you neighbor John (who btw, turns 90 this month!) for taking me here and there, thank-you to those who have tried to work on the multiple problems, Jesse the mule’s dad in particular. It has been a difficult time without a reliable ride.

            I did borrow a really nice truck from someone I used to know to take our granddaughter over the hill to Denver and when I was sitting idle in highway construction delays, I just had to say to myself that we are a blessed society and this was so much easier than taking a covered wagon. We are a spoiled lot.

            Change is hard, but can be good. That’s what they say. In most of our lives this proves to be true over and over again. So now it’s time to put your white shoes away and bring on the annual wardrobe nightmare that haunts females only. Leaving the house early in something kind of “fall-ish” and coming home late afternoon sweating, stripping down to bare essentials because it’s somehow ninety degrees in the shade.

            Give me a break! Pumpkins? Already? I just saw great fun fake ones at City Market, but wait…it’s only September! This means turkeys in October… so on and so forth. I guess we do see Santa at the Thanksgiving parades in Crawford and in New York, but those pumpkins shocked me. How difficult to be in the “now” when these things occur. Pumpkins should be still growing in gardens, not ripe for the picking because it’s still summer! Right?

            Hope everyone enjoyed the hot weather of the season with time well spent and here’s to the very last Dog Days of summer!

 

 

 

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