Carver Creek Revisited - Part 2

(Linda Meikle photos 5-25-09)
Click photos for close-up views.

The end of the road from St. Louis - crosses Carver Creek and is the 'entrance' to my childhood that I remember most.

It was raining during our visit May 25, 2009. This will most likely be the last time I ever go back because everything is changing, and memories are better than the current pictures.

Hubby Jim checks out the creek we just crossed over. I had expected a flood with all the rain, but was very thankful we were allowed access this time. Our good friend, Norman, died many years ago while trying to cross the flooded creek/slab on a tractor.


(The partial log cabin photo) When we lived here, this spot was the place where we visited Vernon and Juanita Estey. They had the only TV in the area. It's the first place you come to after you cross the creek and about 4 miles from where we lived. Grandma let us walk there and watch Lassie Come Home on Sunday nights. Now it's a log cabin? I notice an air conditioner in the window! The back side was Juanita's kitchen (siding part in photo). She had no running water or electricity except for one kitchen light. The wood stove in the living room was used for heating and cooking!

(Same house) This used to be a steep hilly, rocky driveway that always got washed out with the rains. We had to be careful to avoid snakes in this area.

(Littered yard) We couldn't get a good shot of this famous building, but it used to be the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church where I played the piano and Sandy & I sang Jesus songs together as the 'special music" part of the service for about 8 Carver Creek Seventh-day Adventist residents. (We harmonized perfectly!) When news would get out up and down the creek that we would be singing on Sabbath, the church was 'packed' with maybe 15 people!

Now the building is a trashy house! The outhouse (the 'bathroom" included a Sears catalog!) is still beside the 'church' up on the hill. Sandy says her name is written on the wood in the outhouse! (Jim didn't think it was safe to stop and take pictures.)

Memories For Sale! The property where we lived in the second house with lights and cold water in the kitchen is now for sale. Grandma's acre garden was on the other side of the fence. The mailbox, where we waited for Johnny the mailman to bring letters from grandpa, was where this sign is now.

(Limestone water) These are 50-year-old tadpoles in the ditch by the garden! At least, they look like the same ones that Sandy and I used to catch after the rains!

(Tree on ground) The family tree...is gone too! This tree was a sapling in front of David's House when we lived there. (It's in an old picture). If you look at the house pictured on my blog "Linda's Notebook" (dustyangels.blogspot.com), you will see part of that same tree on the left-hand side of the photo taken in 2003. . Sandy asked me to take another picture of that tree to see how it's grown, but I found the tree on the ground and broken apart from a bad storm that came through the area a few days before we got there.

Jim digs for a small piece of wood to bring home as a keepsake from the first house we lived in on Carver Creek. In my book, it's called, David's House, because David Westbrook built it about 1960. Yes, it was a small square box with a wood stove for heat and cooking. We carried buckets of water from a spring way back in these woods. Never got a snakebite!

There are more pictures I will post later. This is part of my life's story you will find in my book, Dusty Angels and Old Diaries. Jim says that now that he's been there, Carver Creek seems more encompassing because places & people that I talk about (Esteys, Jordans, Westbrooks, the Wake family, and Grace & Albert's place) are further apart then he had expected. The distance between the entrance and exit of the creek crossings is a little less than five miles. Everyone we know lived between the crossings.

I'm not sure how the pictures and descriptions will match up. It's hard to tell when posting this.

Take Care on the Journey,

~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com