Once I had begun working full time the years seemed to speed along at a pace faster than I wanted. My daughters were growing, progressing from one grade to another. Suddenly one was in high school and the other was an intermediate student. My calendar was filled with work and family related events. The times were good as we said hello to one new year after another and even decided to add a room and renovate our home. 

We had been looking for a new place to live, believing that we had outgrown our house, but our daughters complained at every turn that they did not want to leave the friendly neighbors who had become like family. Finally one of our neighbors suggested that her cousin might be able to transform our house the way he had done with hers. I had to admit that she had a great looking home and so we called the man to ask him to draw up a plan. His ideas ended up being wonderful and soon our place became a construction zone as he tore out walls and built new ones. In the meantime we also decided to change everything in our kitchen as well to make it more modern and useful.

For a time the place was in chaos but bit by bit it began to take shape and the results were stunning. Our home literally looked brand new and had nine hundred additional square feet along with another bathroom that would surely make readying ourselves for work and school each morning so much better. We had even moved our washer and dryer inside from the detached garage, added to our patio and built a deck. We were overjoyed to still be near the neighbors who had made our lives so wonderful and have a home that was modern and beautiful. Best of all, our girls were thrilled that they would not be uprooted from the bliss that they had always known on Anacortes Street.

Mike’s Uncle Bob had owned a little cabin set on property adjacent to Caney Creek near Brazoria, Texas. It was about an hour and half drive from our home and we had free access to it any time we wished to go there. It was a wonderful weekend haven that allowed us to spend real family time together. Knowing how much we treasure the place Uncle Bob left it to Mike when he died. We found ourselves spending more and more time there gathering pecans from the native trees in the fall and mowing the huge lawn in the spring and summer. 

The place had no air conditioning or heating. We had to rely on ceiling fans and the windows that lined the perimeter of the rooms to stay cool. When it was cold we used an old gas heater that required us to leave one of the windows open that that we would not poison ourselves. It was only a step above camping in the tent but we loved it. hardly a weekend passed that we were not there.

We liked to play board games and cards or just sit around a campfire made from fallen tree limbs. At one point we purchased a flat bottom boat to cruise down the shallow water of the creek. It felt heavenly there, a throwback to another time and place. 

Just down the road from the cabin was an old historic home dating back to an era before the Civil War. It looked sadly neglected with high grass growing around its weatherbeaten walls. We always wondered what the place was and why it had been so abandoned. Many years later archeologists would find all sorts of artifacts on the grounds. A group from the University of Houston would get permission to study the history of the place and bring it back to life. 

The road on which the property stood was called Bell Bottom, named after one of Uncle Bob’s friends who had been a mover and shaker in the town and the county. We called the little cabin Bell Bottom. and boasted to everyone how wonderful it was.

Bell Bottom was not far from Matagorda Bay in the town of Matagorda. We sometimes drove there on an afternoon to visit another relative of Mike’s, Uncle Haig. Haig was the brother of Mike’s grandmother and his Aunt Elsie who had been married to Uncle Bob. Haig was a bachelor after a long ago failed marriage. He spent as much time as his job would allow in a house along the Colorado River where he might often be found fishing. 

Matagorda was a fascinating place. I was nestled near the Colorado River, the Intercoastal Canal and Matagorda Bay. It was difficult to decide if it was a fishing river town, a beautiful beach or just a waterway to parts far away. Back in those days the only way to reach everything was to travel over a drawbridge. We were always the happiest if we had to stop while the bridge moved out of the way for a big ship. It was fun to watch the mechanisms at work. 

If Uncle Haig was home we stopped in to say hello and he would ply us with fresh table shrimp and oysters caught only days before. He was a very sweet man who seemed intent on looking out for members of his family since all five of his siblings had already died. He took great delight in seeing us and never failed to ask if we needed anything. I always believed he would have given us the shirt off of his back if we had taken a liking to it.

Of course we never left without a trip to the beach which was pristine, not filled with the remains of human presence in the form of trash. It always made me think of explorers from foreign lands in days when only the Native Americans roamed the area. It held a treasure trove of birds and sea life and its waters were cool and refreshing on hot days when the fans at Bell Bottom were not enough to keep us content. 

We really did know how blessed we were in those days. Life was comfortable and filled with people that we loved. The simplicity of it all was what made it work. It reminded me of my own childhood and the great times that I had with my grandparents and cousins. It was a moment when there was a lull in bad luck, illness and death that made life almost perfect, but in my heart I understood that change was inevitable so I cherished those moments with gusto and still remember them with a smile.