Elephants In The Back Yard

One of the first things we did after moving to Wocus was get a dog.  The children had wanted a pet for some time, but living in apartments made it impossible.  We rescued a small shepherd mix from the local pound, and he became an instant friend to the children...me, too.  I  have always loved animals, any animal, but especially dogs.  From this time on it seems we always had pets of some kind.  Each child had his/her favorite.

Some  of my favorite memories of that little house in Wocus:

• Heating for the house that was in the baseboards of the rooms.  After scorching several long curtains I realized it had to be short curtains ONLY.
• Having missionaries to dinner for the first time.  I really stressed over that for some time.  I wanted everything to be so perfect...all done at the same time, all hot when it got to the table and served on time.  I soon found out that missionaries don't really care about any of those things.
• Catching my dress on fire by sitting on the hearth of the fireplace.  I loved to sit there on cold winter days because it was so warm.
• Seeing Jeanie who was going on five have the courage to walk to the little store near our house by herself to get something for me.  (It was safe back then, and I would watch from the corner while she went and came back.
• Matching Easter dresses for the girls and me on which I spent hours appliqueing  and embroidering roses all down the front.  (I must have been a little crazy or I must have had too much time on my hand.  I can't imagine that with three little girls to take care of.  But again I guess that was possible since I was pretty much stranded way out there with no car to get anyplace.
• Elephants in our back yard.  Yes, that's right...real elephants.  A highway ran in front of our little street and one evening a circus truck tipped over right in front of our street.  It was carrying elephants who had to me rescued from the truck.  The handlers drove the frightened animals to the open field behind our house until a rescue truck could be sent.  They put chains around their ankles (if elephants have ankles) and connected the chains to long metal stakes which they drove into the ground.  The handlers tried really hard to control the traumatized elephants but they would rock back and forth, pulling on the stakes until they would pull them right out of the ground.  The kids were just enthralled by seeing those huge animals up so close.  We realized, however, that it was not too safe being so close considering the way they were acting.  So it was in the house to watch out the window.  I'll bet every one of the girls remember the "elephants in the back yard."
  

We didn't stay in that house too long.  We soon realized that it was just too far out of town.  Jeanie would be starting kindergarten in the fall which meant she would have to ride the bus.  I wasn't even sure they had a bus that went out there, and I had no other way to get her there.  And since I had no car, I wanted to be closer to stores that I could walk to.  So we began house hunting again on the weekends.