Contrast essay

Every time I return to my parent’s house it is very strange the way everything looks. It has not changed too much, there are a few houses that were not there when I was growing up, the field across the street is starting to grow in because of the lack of very stubborn Black Angus Cows. The noticeable things that have changed since I was a kid are my old tree house where I spent most of my free time, my old hunting grounds, and my parent’s house. Its fun going home and walking around to all the places I spent the majority of my childhood, but it can be a little sad to see all the ways things change over the years as well. But one thing that can never change is what I remember about my childhood and all the fun I had.

I took my daughter to my old tree house and saw that most of it was still there, I guess it was not wrong to put twelve 16 penny nails in every board. My old rope zip line was still there with the bicycle handle bars I used to slide with were on the ground at the base of the tree. The big hole in the tree where my friend Chris and I put all our contraband in was now being used as a home by a porcupine, I wonder if he found my Redman chewing tobacco and my corncob pipe, I wasn’t going to reach in and find out. The strangest part of returning to my old tree house is everything now looks very small. The tree house was not as high as I remember when I was a kid I thought it was at least 40 feet high but returning I found that it was only about 10 feet, no wonder I survived so many falls off the top. The zip line that seemed to stretch a mile was only about 35 feet, much shorter then I remember. The walk to my old tree house was even shorter then I remember, but now when I walked I noticed it was all uphill, I don’t think it was all uphill when I was a kid, I’m not sure how I did that twenty times a day.

There is about 100 acres in front of my parent’s house that I always hunt in. The land surrounding my parents house was at one time all farm land, and there are stone walls all over the place marking ends of old fields, when I was kid I used them to keep from getting lost but now if I wanted to I can just use a GPS to find my way. I had and old tree stand that I built in a big beech tree, next to a small stream. I could see down the stream about 100 yards to an old granite bridge, and 50 yards up the stream I could see into the swamp that the stream started from. In front of me there was a small ridge about 100 yards away with an apple tree at the base of the small ridge, needless to say I had the perfect spot for a tree stand, even if it did not produce a Buck. But now I can’t even get to my old tree stand. Over the past ten years a couple of beavers have moved in and started damming up the small stream. At first it was no problem, but then the old granite bridge went under water and now the last year I went to the tree stand I could not get to it, because the ten acres that surrounded the tree stand was now under water. The gentlemen that owns the land put no trapping signs all around the area, so it is only going to get worse, but I guess I will have to go explore new territory for the perfect tree to put a tree stand in.

My parent’s house is no exception for change as well. My dad bought the house in 1982 for $6,200 and when he bought it, it was half a house and half a pig barn. After a bunch or remodeling we moved in. In 1990 my dad decided it was time to make the house bigger to accommodate five kids. My dad is very stubborn and does not change if he does not have to but there are things that are even out of his control. The hardwood floors are worn and breaking from the years of all his kids and now grandkids ridding there toys back in forth from the living room to the kitchen, they did shine at one time. My mom’s handmade cabinets were once solid as a rock are now starting to fall off their hinges and the counter top is starting to warp. The west side of the house has sunk about three inches because of the old granite foundation under the support walls. When my dad finished the rebuilding of the 150 year old house, with the original post and beam structure, he took great pride in saying he was able to make the entire house level and plum, and that is not easy.

I remember my friend and I in the tree house and the fun we had building it, cleaning out my dad’s good lumber and all his nails. I don’t like to hunt to much I would much rather fish, but most of the time I go out just to spend time with my dad, and when my dad and I get together in the woods we mostly walk miles exploring new territory, he says we are hunting so that’s all that matters. As for my parents house, I not sure that will ever change, unless my mom finally threatens my dad a stops feeding him until he replaces the floors and cabinets. I am not sure that will even work, my dad still refuses to drill a well and put in a toilet inside. I think once he gets too old to walk to the outhouse he will put one in. It is funny how years can change things, but there are things that will never change, like the memories of my child hood and I would never want to change one of them.