Pit Stop Turned Hay Ride

We took both bubs to a farm in upstate NY, on our way home from visiting uncle Vinny, cousins Gavin and Grace. We didn't know that this farm was here when we took a break from the road. It just happened upon us.

Within minutes all four of us were sitting on a trailer, sectioned with bales of hay for seats, hitched to a farm tractor. Our driver was a recently retired history teacher, who pleases his wife by staying out of the house working on the farm. Unfortunately, I'm forgetting his name. Now that it was about three weeks since this trip, my CRS is setting in. I was supposed to have this post up already, but now that I'm working myself... my free time has slipped away. At any rate, I digress. The history-teacher-turned-farm-tractor-hay-ride driver, yes - that guy. Well, he seemed to be enjoying the heck out of his new job and even offered Bubs 1 a seat on the big blue tractor.

At first, Bubs 1 seemed uninterested. He walked towards the trailer, instead of the tractor, when we asked him if he wanted to sit on the tractor. Then the interested seemed to seep into him. This is when Bubs 1 casually glanced over at the tractor, then he looked at us. We continued our encouragement. Bubs 1 stopped in his tracks, smiled and walked back over to me seemingly embarrassed by all the attention. Without asking again, I just picked him up and handed him over to the retired teacher, who placed the bubs on the tractor seat.
 Bubs 1 sat there silently looking around at the big ol tractor. I think he was amazed at the size of it. His no words described it perfectly. We went on to pick out some pumpkins in the patch and returned back to the farm. Our pit stop was done and back on the highway we went.

For the first 11 years of my life (before the shit hit the fan), I grew up in farm land country, in northern NJ. I remember a "Farm and Horse Show," in Sussex, NJ. It was about 30 minutes from our home. I think that we (my mother, brother and I) went there on a few Octobers. I have a memory of a picture (unfortunately not the event... more CRS??) where I was sitting on a pony. There was some other person holding the pony's straps (Bridle?) as they guided this pony in circles around a pen, giving rides to kids like me. I don't remember much else about this fair, but we're also talking about the 1970's so my memory may not be that bad at all.

Bubs 1 told his mom and me that he want's to be a ghost for Halloween. We were surprised, but very happy that he's taking an interest. So a ghost he'll be. I'm wondering if he'll allow us to put a sheet over his head? Not likely, so we'll have to get creative with this costume. I remember being a ghost when I was in Kindergarten (almost the same age as the bubs), but this memory also comes from a picture. There's another picture (where are all of these pictures!!!) of me somewhere standing in front of my old house in a Casper-the-Friendly-Ghost costume. You know the old school costumes with the mask that didn't allow you to breath properly? Yes, those.

Where are all of these pictures of me as a kid? Who knows. I think they were all left in that house I lost when my family fell apart. I'm glad that I'm keeping this blog, because I don't think that the Internet is going to be lost anytime soon.