Anna's Favorite Things

Each day that Anna was in Idaho Falls for the recent visit, Lydia would take her into the backyard in the late morning, just before the heat became unbearable outside. There was usually a slight summer breeze, and Anna could look for strawberries in the planter, but she found things that I thought only the boys would notice.

She would knock on the door--ever so gently--and enter, clenching rocks in her hand. They were not just a simple rock with rough edges. These were river rocks, possibly deposited in the valley floor by ancient glaciers and later rubbed smooth in stream beds. How they arrived in my yard is a mystery that only the people selling "top soil" to contractors can answer. Personally, I figure their ancestors sold medicine in the American West a hundred and fifty years ago--the stuff that not only cured everything from cold sores to ingrown toenails, but it also removed warts and heavy stains from clothing. It is so nice that they can make a living selling gravel as top soil to contractors, so that a granddaughter or grandson can find them to throw at windows or postmen or dogs. As a child I would have used them that way. I would have thrown them at some of my relatives.

By the end of their stay, Anna had an entire collection. Unfortunately, we threw some of them back into the yard, until one day I figured what I would do with them.

The sweet old dears at Porters, an Idaho Falls craft store, must have done a series of double takes when Tommy and I shopped there on one of those final days. It is not every day when a grown man finds it necessary to do crafts.

Tommy and I found this bucket-like thing that looked like a paint can, except for the clear plastic that allows anyone to see its contents. And we found a large number of flower stickers. As soon as Tommy and I finished shopping, we drove home and I put the thing together. Anna's eyes sparkled when she saw the finished product, a small jar-like object that carried most of her rocks and a pine cone she found in the yard. Anna carried it around the house the entire day, and when they left, she wanted it by her.

However, we were not yet finished at that point. When Tommy and I left Porters, we went looking for tractors, so that I could feel secure in my manliness. I know Tommy felt better about the whole thing, especially given the fact that he was able to get both a John Deere and a Case International tractor. The Case even had a front end loader.