Ridge Road
Tucked away within the pristine countryside of farms and pastures in the heart of the Midwest is a dusty gravel road called "Ridge Road". And if you drive down Ridge Road today you're sure to run into a little place called "Vine's Christmas Trees"! There, on a late fall day, you can bring your family, bring your dog, bring your favorite sweater, and enjoy some steaming hot chocolate......... and then stroll out into a sea of perfectly groomed Christmas Trees! Maybe bring one home for the holiday season, or just take your time, visit with friends, and enjoy the views of the most beautiful place on earth!
But long before there were Christmas Trees there, there was a farm! It had rows of corn, fields of hay, red barns, grain silo's, ponds, windmills, beef cattle, a few Holsteins for milk, a horse, and of course, a couple of Black Labrador's to keep watch over it all!
I didn't grow up on Ridge Road, but my brother and I spent many a summer's day and night living and working with the Vine family, who owned the farm. When hay needed to be baled and put in the barn for the winter, it was all hands on deck..... I was one of the hands!! Now, to say that I was much help to the Vine boys, well, that would be a stretch! I did my best to keep up. But when we weren't working in the fields, we were swimming in the pond, or building hay forts in the barn, or playing football or basketball or baseball, or pitching a tent to do a little camping. It was a beautiful time in my life that I'll never forget.
But even though each day seemed to last forever up on Ridge Road, somewhere along the way, my life just didn't wait up.... It just steamrolled on by, and the next thing I knew, I was 2,000 miles and two generations away....
In our youth, sometimes we don't realize that the very life we have, the place that we're standing, and people that we're sharing life with will be the foundation that carries us forward for all time. Without a doubt, my days on Ridge Road made me a better and stronger person. And the lessons learned there have carried me through this life!
So here's a little song I've written to say "thank you" to the Vine family for welcoming me into their home so long ago....
I'm quite certain I'll never make it back to Ridge Road, but then again, a part of me has never left....