Giddy Up/Glory Days

  Oh how I miss those happy days.   Sis says it all started when I was 2 years old and someone came by the “house” (actually The Old Baptist Church building where we lived) with a pony and Mom & Dad sat me on it for a photo.  I don’t remember that, but it does make sense because I love horses and had always said that I would own one some day.

In the late 1950’s there was a horse farm in Cahokia, IL and Dad & I used to go there on his days off.  How I loved to walk through the barn and just smell the horses.  I got to know many of them by name and they were always happy to see me.  (Of course my pockets being crammed with carrots had nothing to do with it.)  I always wanted to own a horse and can remember asking if there were any for sale.  How elated I was when told one cost $50.00, and how dejected I felt when Dad said, “How are you going to get the $50.00 and pay for the boarding?”

Of course at that time I didn’t know my childhood friend Barb (The Gad About) Gambill and her family.  They lived right next to the horse farm, but we didn’t meet until the 1960’s when her twin sister and I were in the same 4th grade class, and by then the farm had been sold and replaced by a shopping center.

After that Dad used to take me horseback riding at Grand Marias Park in E. St. Louis, IL. We would go once a month on a Tues because I was going to school in the afternoon and he had Tues off.  He would pay for an hour ride, and sometimes we were lucky enough to go out without a guide; so we got to do some cantering and trotting.  Then the day came when that too ended because the state park got rid of the horses.  That was a sad day for me because there were no longer any places close by to go riding.  We still continued to ride when on vacation, but didn’t always go somewhere that had horses.  No I never bought a horse, but still love to be close to them.  Anybody know of a rodeo close by?