Observation Essay

Jacob Willey
Instructor: VanLaningham
English 111-F06
5 Feb 2011

    A Walk Through my Past

     Sunlight falls effortlessly, cascading down through the clouds, casting shattered light to the earth below.  Radiant spots of light travel slowly across the ground, scorching life in their wake, an effect created by the clouds drifting about the heavens.  In brief glimpses we can view the sky, and its deep blue color, visible through small fissures in the ocean of vapor overhead.   Off in the distance to the west, the sky and clouds take on a darker purpose and, to us, appear a deep shade of purple.  Intermittently, bolts of light can be seen flashing, followed shortly by a deep rumble that rolls though the sky, shaking creation in its path.  The storm is slowly rolling away, and soon the sound of thunder is nothing more than a memory, but the moisture left behind is a more than welcome drink for this heated land.  Here, we stand on an old dirt road, the passage of time fresh upon it’s face; dips and holes the only traces of travelers past.   Rocks shift restlessly under our feet as we travel along the road to the north.
   
     Vast fields of farmland containing crops of beans, grain, and corn span the expanse in all directions.  Unlike the grain and beans, which sway causally in the breeze, the corn stands in proud defiance of the wind and reaches up to worship the sun.  Only the large green leaves and the silky golden tassels on the top of the stalks acknowledge the wind, flittering slightly as the breeze passes by.  The once tilled ground, still a dark chocolate color, looks nurtured and cared for, a sign of the effort put into these fields by the farmers.  Various types of flowers dot the sides of the road adding a kaleidoscope of smells and colors to our scene.  Birds chirp and sing all around us, and butterflies dance on the breeze in the air.
   
     As we reach the end of this road, we can see that the path north is blocked by fields and the intersecting road here runs east to west.  To the west we can see more fields, and farm houses, looking like nothing more then tiny figurines out in the distance.  As we turn east and resume our journey, the road slowly narrows and takes on the characteristics of a dirt driveway.  Cut directly out of the field, sits a beautiful yard that acts as home to a large, fresh cut, deep green lawn. The strong smell of grass drifts through the air tingling and tantalizing our senses.  We can observe a small brown shack sitting in the center of the yard.  Silver fencing runs out from the sides of the shack barricading a square section of the yard to the back of it. Within the fence lay two sleeping dogs, tongues hung out in protest of the heat.  The driveway continues on just a bit further and we can see that it forks into two paths.  One arcs to the north leading up between the fenced area and the side of a large white house, the other leads east past the house and off into the distance.   In the driveway sits a couple of cars, and  a large dark brown tarp sits on a heap in front of them.
   
     The house stands tall and welcoming before us.  Two doors lead inside, one off the driveway on the side of the house, one on the front of the house off a large raised porch.  Long thin gardens border the house, full of flowers and an assortment of plants.  Brightly colored flowers are displayed in various positions and in a variety of planters around the house and on the porch.  Large windows placed in the sides of the house, decorated with curtains,  reflect the endless clouds rolling through the sky.  Long green hoses, running several sprinklers, extend from a spigot on the side of  the house and dart across the yard.   The water being cast about to maintain the lawn mists softly through the air, creating a most brilliant rainbow effect when a wild sunbeam bursts out of the cloudy sky.
   
     Entering the house through the side door, we walk into a large open space serving as the dining room.  A large wooden table for eight sits in the center, and a kitchen is off to the left. The house smells of home-cooked meals, good times, and family.  Three doors and a stairway lead off out of this room.  Two of the doors, just there in front of us, lead to a bathroom and a bedroom.  The doorway off to the right of this room leads to the living room of the house.  The walls of the dining room are covered with cabinets filled with dishes and trinkets. Walking over to the living room door, we can see a entertainment center, very nice for this space in time, a large sofa, and a couple of chairs off in the corners filling up the rest of the room.  If we back track just a bit, enough just to reach the base of the stairs we saw earlier, we can trot up the stairs and find three more bedrooms.  All of these huge rooms filled with dressers, mirrors, closets, and king size beds.  One of these rooms, in particular, equipped with a king size waterbed. 
   
     As we continue our walk, returning back outside after having paused to look at the house, we can see that there is a giant pole barn tucked away adjacent to the house and, therefore, not visible from the other side.  The pole barn mainly composed of metal is large enough to house a crop plane.  Through the window in the side we can see that part of this barn has been cornered off by walls and there is a weight room setup.  There is also a set of stairs running up one of the sides, next to a mirrored wall, leading up to a second floor.   Walking in through the side door of the barn, we can view weights of various sizes scattered about as if used often, and workout machines sitting all around.  In the wall of mirrors before us there is a door on the right that leads out into the main area of the barn.  Considering that the main area of the barn is irrelevant to this journey, let us continue up the stairs. 

      Couches rest against two of the four walls, blankets thrown all around, and videogames cartridges are cast throughout the room.  A small colored television sits on a stand in the center of the room, and controller cords reach out from the Sega Genesis and Nintendo consoles beneath it.  Large speakers sit to the left and the right of the television, and a stereo to control it all sits off to the side.  It would appear that some children have spent many lazy summer hours lounging around here and playing video games.  As we look around, we can here the sound of engines far off coming closer, so we head back down the stairs and back out through the door to see what we find.
   
     Coming down the dirt road from the east are two children on four-wheelers.  Both of these boys have tan skin, a testament to their travels in the sun, and sweat pours off them freely in the overwhelming heat.  They whip down the road, racing side by side back to the house, impatient for the dinner to come.  Nearly flying past us, they race up to the driveway of the house, park the four-wheelers and throw the large brown tarp back over them. They run inside the brown shack to feed and water the dogs and their pups, and head inside for dinner, later escaping back to the freedom of the pool barn later that night. 
   
The place that I have been describing serves as one of my fondest child-hood memories.  As a child I grew up for some time, with my brother and mother in Kokomo, Indiana.  My mother worked hard to provide for us, but we lived in low income housing, and in a neighborhood that perhaps wasn’t the best in town.  However, in school I was fortunate enough to meet a kid named Jeremy, who quickly became one of my best friends.  This place was his home, and the setting of many of my summer days.  A place to me that transcends time itself, for not only did I visit there for solace as a child, but I can revisit it in my mind now and still find relief.   In many ways it helped to shape who I am today, by letting me escape kind of life that I had been born into, and showing me that whole families did actually exist.