Chipmunk Crossing

Child, child, have patience and belief, for life is many days, and each present hour will pass away

Thomas Wolfe

My Gran, Granddad, and Uncle Ian built this place. A simple cabin in the woods. It’s up at Vallecito Lake in Colorado. It was always a treat to go up and spend a few days. It was just the perfect place. Uncle Ian’s room was downstairs, filled with many of his hunting trophies. Even after he died that room did not change. It was his room. Upstairs was the kids room with twin beds and an old army cot for me. I was the youngest, and the only boy, so I got the cot. It was comfortable as Gran made it up just like a bed. Mom and Dad got the back upstairs room, the one overlooking the creek. I remember they slept with the windows open to the sound of the creek. When there were more people than beds, the living room downstairs was the backup. The couch kinda folded out into a bed, and there was always room for sleeping bags on the floor. There was also an odd rolling cart with 4 pillows. Think skateboard, only square. The TV only got 4 or 5 channels, and fuzzy at that. but you never came up to watch TV so no big deal.

Sometimes it was better sleeping downstairs cause that’s where the bathroom was. I don’t know if “Johnny pot” is the correct term, but that’s what I remember. Gran kept a chamber pot on the ledge overlooking the stairs. Every night she’d move it to the top of the stairs on the small landing between the rooms. I was a kid, and if Gran said I could pee in a pot, what do you think I did? I was six, of course I peed in the pot. Walking down stairs in the dark was dangerous.

The cabin always had a good supply of puzzles and games. Yahtzee was a favorite, and there was this Phillips 66 puzzle that we could put together in our sleep. I still remember the smell of that puzzle, maybe all puzzles have that smell. The family card game was Liverpool Rummy. A good game to play with a big family.

Gran sold the place shortly after Granddad died. We lost our little cabin in the woods. I think if my parents had known she was looking to sell, they would have jumped to keep it in the family. New owners. They expanded that section on the left, and I think it lost it’s charm. Somethings are never meant to be I guess.