Nostalgia.

My dad's grandparents came from Poland over 100 years ago and settled a small valley on the Oregon Coast. Hundreds of acres of old growth forest became what is now Kosydar Ranch. Generations of hard work and sacrifice have carved out that valley and built a ranch alongside a winding river. My great-grandparents had 13 children, one of which was my grandfather. My dad inherited that ranch in 1979. My four siblings and I were raised on 100 acres of wide open spaces and good old fashioned farm grown food. And discipline. haha! Early this past year, my grandfather's last living sibling passed away. She was 93 years old and she was born in the farmhouse that I grew up in. She was the last of the 13. Her name was Francie. She and her sisters, my other great aunts, would visit us on the farm from the big city of Portland, Oregon when I was a kid. I thought they were glamorous older ladies. :) They wore heels and red lipstick and would walk to the river in their fancy 1980's dress up clothes....I'd walk behind them and wonder how they balanced those heels on the rocks so well. They'd pose against the fenceposts while my great uncle's snapped photos of them. They posed on those very posts back in the 1930's, when they were young women. They must have felt the same nostalgia that I now feel when I walk along the farm's gravel roads to the river. But I don't wear heels. ;) One of my dad's cousin's, who is in her 70's, sent me a small package this week. Inside was a white pleated skirt that used to belong to my great aunt Frances. The story goes that my great aunt would wear this white pleated skirt to town dances in the late 1920's and early 1930's. She was very young, and was chaperoned by her brothers and other sisters. My great grandmother, Anna, would protest loudly, telling them: 'If you're going to stay out late, remember there will be NO complaining before church tomorrow! Be home EARLY for the Rosary!" According to my cousin Marilyn, who was a kid at the time, the great aunts and uncles were indeed grumpy on Sunday mornings. hahaha! But this 80+ year old skirt of great aunt Francie's is in pristine condition. It's almost a century old. So I tried it on yesterday, and although I do NOT do it justice, I let Jewel get behind the camera and she snapped some photos of me wearing it. I'm thinking of taking it back to the ranch with me during summer vacation, slipping on some heels and standing in the field by the river. Nostalgia. :)