There was no shortage of trees around our ranch house yard when my siblings and I were growing up. A thick grove of native trees, such as oak, chokecherry and serviceberry, grew behind the house.

Dad and Mom had also planted bushes such as lilac and honeysuckle in the yard, and when we kids were young they planted a row of small evergreens along the yard fence with small deciduous trees in between. The idea was that the deciduous trees, that come on faster, would grow up to provide shade while the evergreens had time to grow.

At the center of attention in the yard, however, was an old silver maple tree. It was tall, with lots of branches and leaves, enough to provide a large shady place underneath in summer. The shade was a cool respite on hot summer afternoons.

I can remember some of those hot afternoons. After the haying crew had eaten dinner at the house and gone back to the hayfield, my sisters and I put the leftovers in the refrigerator (for supper). We washed the dishes, silverware and pots and pans and put everything away. Then we had several hours before evening chores so we headed for the shade of the silver maple tree where we could escape the heat of the kitchen.

We took a blanket outdoors and spread it out in the shade. We never napped. Instead, we found ways to entertain ourselves. Recently, my sister Charlotte (Allum) and I tried to remember just what we did to pass the time. (A lot depended on our ages.)

Charlotte pointed out that much of our time was spent on imaginary play. Indeed, no matter whether we played outdoors or indoors, imagination was at the center of it all. We could invent interesting objects from what we found around us. Thus a stick could have been a fishing pole (or even a fish), and we thought up interesting scenarios for our play.

Charlotte remembers putting a blanket over a branch of the silver maple to make a tent, so it’s likely that we were playing “going camping.” She also remembers turning large silver maple leaves into pretend plates. Twigs might have served as silverware. The number of imaginary games was huge.

            Sometimes we took a doll or two outdoors, but they were prized possessions so didn’t do it very often in fear of having something happen to the dolls. It’s also possible that we took coloring books and crayons outside or even a new paper doll book so that we could cut out the clothes. There were books to read, too.

When we were a little older, we girls enjoyed doing handwork such as embroidery. Sometimes Mom joined us outside in the shade. She sat in a chair and crocheted and told us stories about her childhood as we stitched away.

The pleasant afternoon ended near chore time. We shook out the blanket and folded it up for another day. I remember one time when we found a small, dead water snake when we took up the blanket. We had no idea it was there. We girls weren’t fond of snakes so it was not a good discovery.