Pine Straw

Today as I walked from the parking lot into the physical therapist's building, I cut through a area of pine trees. The smell of the pine straw mixed with the soft cushioned feeling under my feet triggered memories of something I haven't thought of in a while. Travel with me down memory lane . . .

When I was seven we moved into the house on Stroller Ave. It was part of a group of houses all built at the same time. Mom and Dad bought it before they had completely started construction (some of the foundation had been poured) and since the house was on the end of the row of houses, they had the contractor turn the house so it was facing a different direction from the others. All of these houses had been built in what had been woods so there were lots of trees left on the property. Dad liked the pine trees the most so after we moved in he started removing the trees in the backyard that he didn't want and let the pines have their way with half of the backyard. He even made a walkway that bisected the backyard with grass on one side and pines on the other.

As I grew up my brother and I played in the pine straw all the time. Running through the pine straw was a slippery adventure. Falling and laughing like idiots took hours of our time. Probably the most fun was had where five pine trees were close together. We found plywood and boxes and wood and all sorts of junk and built a "fort". Depending on what adventure we were on it could have been a house, a boat, a prison, an Indian camp, a fort from the wild west - you get the idea. Pine straw was used to cover everything and made it a cozy little area. I spent time alone there, just thinking or napping or just daydreaming.

I can't tell you how many times we found spiders and other bugs crawling on us and as a parent I cringe to think of all the bites that could have been serious. Ticks were a big problem too but we were stupid kids and we couldn't see the down side to our forts. We would tear them down just so we could build them up again.

Wow, all this from a smell.