Even when I threw the cat into the tub with my mum, I could do no wrong.

I got a lot of mileage out of being the first female child in my da's family for sixty-seven years. I had to wear a dress until I was ten, was not allowed to get dirty, and had to behave as a little lady at all times.

Born and raised on a farm in Gratiot County, Michigan, I had a lot of acres to ramble through until we moved up town to Ithaca, population 1,200, to begin my seventh grade. I was never a malicious child, just a busy one.

What a childhood I had!

I dressed up as Superman, The Lone Ranger and Zorro, depending on the day of the week. I recall perching on my upstairs bedroom window sill with a towel pinned around my neck as Mum stood in the front yard, frantically waving her arms and broke my heart as she told me, "Oh, No! Nancee Jo, you cannot fly! Superman is only make believe!"

I recall learning to ride a bike and running head-on into the black walnut tree, and the combine three yards away in front of the big barns (slow learner).

Mickey Mouse Club. Winky. Felix The Cat. Tom Terrific. Ding Dong School with Miss Fran. Kookla, Fran (different Fran), and Ollie.

A small tornado coming through the neighboring farms, and being told it sounded like a freight train -- which I took on faith as I had never heard a freight train.

Grandpa Richard, six-foot-four Highlander Scot with a thick brogue.

Howdy Doody with Uncle Bob - who looked just like my real Uncle Bob. Showing Uncle Bob how to start Da's new self-propelled combine, the first one in the county.

Riding in the fields on the tractor seat between my da's legs as he plowed, drilled, planted, fertilized.

Smelling gasoline and liking it when Da left me sitting on the tractor seat as he filled up the fuel tank.

Sleeping on the front porch in the summertime when the weather was hot and humid.

Darwin Beard, the milkman. Harold Emery, the mailman (Later, Mrs. Emery was my high school Latin and French teacher).

Pat and Mike, whose withers were four feet above the top of my head, and, they lazed in the barn and pastures after Da purchased some new gas-powered tractors and equipment for the fields.

Great Aunt Mary, Great Aunt Vera, Great Aunt Doris and going to the old Herron Farm for Holiday Meals. Great Uncle Romi, not the same since he came back from World War One - he had PTSD, back then it was called shell-shock.

Auntie Mame with Roz Russell - she copied my mum, because she acted just like Joyce! Patricia McNeil, my mum's favorite cousin, they were inseparable.

Tartans, Pipes. Intended instructional and historical stories of Clan Edgar of Clan McKenzie of Clan Campbell.

Being addressed as "Girl" 99% of the time, and by full name when in trouble. (cat in dryer, cat in tub while Mum was bathing, coming home late from school - only once).

The one-room school house from my kindergarten through my sixth grade, where my Da and his brother attended school.

War stories from Uncle Raymond who was posted on Okinawa during the Pacific Theatre of World War Two with the 102AA - Motto: "The wind blew, the sh** flew, and out of the fog came the One-Oh-Two".

What a wonderful trip for me down this old Memory Lane of mine. Thank you, lancedimitri, for requesting this hub.

http://hubpages.com/profile/lancedimetri

I'll be sixty soon. An Ole Navy wife, Navy mother, Navy aunt twice over, have two grown sons and five grandchildren. Where did the time go?

~Nan