(Fox News photo)The little three-year-old child who wandered away from his home last Monday and was found today by searchers today (April 6, 2009) about three miles from his home in Arcadia, Missouri, has something in common with me and my book, Dusty Angels and Old Diaries. (Joshua story HERE)
Arcadia is the first town you come to when leaving the remote forest area where my sister and I lived as teenagers on Carver Creek - the story is told in detail in my memoir!
(The color photos in the link are exact places my sister visited often when we lived there.)
The elated searchers who reported the wonderful news of Joshua's rescue today, described the terrain as "heavily wooded" with "granite rocks, stream beds and rough terrain".
That would be where we survived living in the house pictured on home page of this website. Where my sister and I bathed in the frigid leech-filled waters of Carver Creek; split firewood barefoot for the wood stove; carried drinking water from a living spring deep in the wild woods; used the smelly, rickety outhouse surrounded by woods, snakes and spiders; rescued baby rattlesnakes from the garden; raised baby mice collected from the attic; worked long back-breaking hours in grandma's garden; and canned hundreds of jars of vegetables and fruit to help us survive the long, cold winters in Missouri about 100 miles south of St. Louis.
Today's news story indicated that Joshua slipped out while his dad was sleeping, and his mother was talking on the phone. In our time, we had no phone, no electricity and no running water. (Later, we did live in a house with water in one room and electricity for lights.) My sister and I wanted to run away, but felt we had no place to run.
My book shares many 'warm' memories of Carver Creek, and I'm sure we "escaped" the 'evils' of of time such as The Beatles' arrival in America, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and Elvis Presley! We didn't have a TV or radio and we didn't attend formal schooling. (That part could have been better. ha ha)
We learned how to search the woods for mushroom delicacies and natural salad makings. Grandma taught us how to bake perfect loaves of whole wheat bread in a cookstove heated with sticks of wood. We cut out our own patterns and sewed our clothes on the old pedal Singer sewing machine. We learned to play the piano on an ancient upright church piano. We could milk cows and goats, hatch chickens and geese from eggs, plant a garden that would feed an army, and find the best walnut trees in the forest after the first frost in the fall.
I'm enclosing a link with a photo of the Arcadia Valley Bank where in 1965, grandma deposited $5 each for my sister and me. We discovered the money nearly 50 years later (last year) while doing a web search for unclaimed funds. (Oh yeah, our checks were for exactly $5.)
My story tells of life and death; sorrow and happiness; grief and joy; mystery and success!
I'm thankful that you survived, Joshua.
I'm sure your life was saved by your angels - as was mine.
Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda
Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com
1 comment:
I didn't know they had a hosp. in Ironton!!! We had to go all over trying to get me a t-shot when we went back for vist in 2000.
I'm very happy that Joshua was found ALIVE!!!
I was just yesterday looking at photos for GM in our huge garden and one of us kids, (Randy Cindy Roger you and me) in front of the church/school. Man am I glad I don't have to live like that any more. I'm always telling Craig my home is a mansion after suriving life on the creek!
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