A Trip Down Memory Lane, Sitting on the swing......

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Looking through my trunk of photos, different ones jump out at me, each one telling a different story. I think of all these photos, without frames, neatly in a stack but still sitting away in the dark. I wish for an unlimited amount of time, where I could proudly display them all in albums, but I know the amount of time it would take to do would overwhelm me, and how many albums would I need to fit them all. As I think about this I stop I see a photo of me, it's summer time 1993, I am 7 years old. I try to recall the memories of Summer as a child, to think 1993, 24 years ago now– The reason this photo stands out is my mother has always told me that it was her favorite photo of me. There I am short hair, spiking up just a tad, I’m sitting on a swing in my Grandparents back yard – I'm back there now, it's the 4th of July, My Uncles Roy & Willie are at the BBQ grilling up burgers and hot dogs, a myriad of cousins all around, the older boys my cousins Jesse, Joe, Luke, and Uncle Leo playing basketball, my sister Jackie is pushing the younger cousins Audrey, Nicki and James on the double swing in the yard closer to the house. My cousins Willie & Matt playing on the Horse and Duck riders, they are like the toy rockers kids ride on but they are cemented into the ground, these same rockers we're rode by my mom, aunt and uncles as kids. I'm on the swing by myself as my mom is snapping the photograph of me, no instant photo, she has no idea how it turned out but she is sure it turned out good. My Brother TR stands on the porch talking to my Grandpa, My Grandma and Aunt Peggy inside the house washing dishes, fixing the house, or watching television occasionally coming outside to chat and visit amongst the crazy bunch outside. Great Grandma Martha is visiting she is sitting on a lawn chair, My Aunt Pauline in a chair next to her making small talk, keeping an eye on her boys, as they move from the rockin' rider animals over to the monkey bars, seeing where they are heading I jump off the swing to join them. There we are 7, 6, and 3. Pauline tells Matt he's to little, me and Willie climb up the monkey bars, swinging around. Our cousins who lived across the road come over Justin, & his wife Tammy, there kids Heather and Dustin, and Josh. They have baseball mits, the family baseball game is about to commence, us little kids don't actually go to bat, but instead we are the designated runners for our mom's me running for my mom Reta, and Willie running for Aunt Pauline. My Aunt Tonya has James running for her but him still being little the adults give him more time to make it to bases. A good hour is spent not really keeping score, I think maybe even Grandma came outside for awhile to bat. My Grandma was always very active with us kids, she'd play basketball with the boys, and go to all there games and actively cheer them on. Now – Suddenly i'm transported back to now, what a whirl our family has gone through the last 24 years, Grandpa and Great Grandma gone, Grandma is 77 now no longer able to get around without help, family have grown distant, a sadness overwhelms me as I think how great times we're and how they can never quite be the same. The old swing set where my picture was taken is long gone now, a horse barn there now. A Fence is up where our baseball games used to be had. No--- nothing is quite the same, it's been a long time since we were all together like that, makes me wish we could go back to relive those memories of my childhood, maybe change some things where the family still could come together like this, what I wouldn't do to have one more family baseball game, Grandma out there instead of Great Grandma sitting in the lawn chair. My sister and my cousins kids all around playing on the old playground, but this will never be times have changed, people have become so stubborn in age they refuse to forgive, life has changed some things it seems are not forgivable, I cry out for back then, but I know we must let go, and let now be ok.