We liked the yard, a good place for the children to play, with one exception--the little creek in the ravine. Somehow the kids got the idea that it was an alligator pond, so for obvious reasons, I let the myth remain. Meanwhile their dad acquired an old packing crate and put it in the gravenstein apple tree for a playhouse, which was fine except when the yellow jackets were buzzing around the fallen apples.
Mike's older brothers shared a room upstairs and Mark (second oldest) discovered that a door going from their room into the dark, shadowy attic could be left open, and it would make Ben call for mom, as he believed (like Pasqually in the Rose is a Rose comic strip) that there was a monster in there who would creep out and crawl under his bed.
We lived there for four years and even our youngest son had some interesting learning experiences. When Mike was about six months old I taught him how to back down the stairs so he wouldn't tumble down and break his head open. He was not afraid of heights. When he was a little older he climbed up to the top of a bookcase and had to be rescued by his father. Another time he was missing and we found him by noticing two big eyes laughing at us behind the fireplace screen. He was covered in black ashes! Still another time Mike climbed up into a large bathroom closet (with a latch on it) while a babysitter was occupied with the other children. He ate some baby aspirins. The babysitter's mom rushed him to Memorial Hospital where he had his stomach pumped. By the time we got home he was dreaming peacefully.
Another time, I was down in the basement preparing to wash some clothes. When I came back up into the kitchen I saw a mountain of open packages and my little boy with a big black ring around his mouth. I was shocked! He spilled corn flakes, opened Jello, Kool-Aid and puddings topped off by a package of black Rit dye. I still don;'t know how he climbed to the top shelf to get it. Hurriedly scanning the list of ingredients I found the dye to be non-poisonous but it was hardly edible either. I won't mention what the punishment was.
Somehow this child managed to grow up anyway. After we moved from 50th Avenue, he fell off a fence he was trying to walk on, and had to get stitches in his forehead. Another time he got his foot stuck in the fork of a small tree and I fed him marshmallows while we waited for rescue. He survived a tornado that blew through Peter S. Ogden school. He channeled his energy into Little League baseball (all-star) and first string halfback for the Columbia River Chieftans Still climbing, he and a friend ascended a water tower on Ludlam Hill to watch fireworks one Fourth of July, and did some community service for that trick. After high school graduation he went on a church mission for the LDS Church to Lima, Peru. He came back, got married to a gal from Kentucky whom he met while attending BYU. He got a Bachelor's degree from WSUV and a Master's from Murray State in Kentucky, which laid the groundwork for his becoming employed as a facilities manager for the LDS Church in Ohio. He recently moved to Arizona and began training to be a project manager over new temple construction for the Church. He and his wife have three sons and three daughters, who love their unconventional dad, who still does crazy things.
