I don't really know what it is about the well - but it's special. Maybe because most people in South St. Louis ( or any city) didn't have a well. Maybe because we would change the inside and outside of the house with paint, new furniture, new siding, new garage, different plants in the yard, etc., etc. - but the well was a constant. It was always just there. It was often a backdrop in our backyard pictures and we always talked about the well as if it was our own possession - I almost felt like we had deserted it when we left. This picture is me and my three favorite siblings in 1996 after we had emptied momma & daddy's house of all possessions and was getting it ready to sell. I don't know if the well was ever not filled in with dirt since we owned the house but that's how I always remember it. It was a good place to hide Easter eggs (just ask Sherri), momma grew rose moss in it a few years and it did great there, and as I already said, it was THE "picture" spot. There is one story about the well that I must tell. Steve is probably one of the most "city" people I have ever known - and even though I always lived in the city, I had enough 'country' family background that when we first started dating he thought I (or we) were probably slightly 'backwards'? I'm not sure if that is the right word - but Jimmy and I were able to convince him (very easily, I might add) that we kept a horse in our back yard. He knew we had a well and I guess he just thought 'why not a horse too?' We only mentioned it now and then and he never questioned that we might really have a horse. (I'm not sure why he never asked to see it - maybe he was always there at night). We didn't really lead him on too long but I blew it one day when I said something about our milk and - our cow. He asked about the cow - and I told him we kept it tied up - at the well- next to the horse. I couldn't help laughing at the look on his face and that he would actually believe all this and that's when he knew we had been messing with him. At lease the well was real! But I do miss the well - it's like a long lost friend.
2 comments:
I also remember the well as the place that my friends would run to and jump ontop of, to keep Joe's dog Missy from biting them,when we would be playing in the yard and the dog would get loose.
jimmy
Tell Steve not to feel bad about the horse story. Sherri believed Jimmy's story about the safe behind the picture for a long time. I tried that story on one of my grandchildren but they didn't go for it.
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