Taken Back

This past Monday I took the day off and Greg and I went to Kalona to the sale barn. We were looking for tack and thought it would be fun to go to the Kalona sale. Upon pulling up to the barn I was immediately taken back to days gone by. For just a moment I stopped to dream. Dream about the days that my grampa would take me to the sale barn. The smell, the sights, the sounds...it was still all the same. I could have closed my eyes and felt 5 years old again as visions of grampa danced in my head. The stools where would eat our lunch served by Amish women were still in place. Amish men gathered to eat their meal always followed up with a delicious piece of pie. Farmers from all over joined in conversation as they discussed the markets. I was still in awe of the Amish society and their way of life, just as I was in awe of them way back then. I haven't been there in at least 25 years, but it was all so vivid and oddly the same. It seemed like I was just jumping back in time. Oh how grampa would have loved to be there with us....buying saddles, bridles and all the stuff we need for our horses. I can just hear the stories he would have told--how he used to drive his horses to school when he was just six years old and how their horse got spooked and his baby sister was thrown from the buggy on their way to church one Sunday morning. Stories I have heard a million times, but that I would give everything I have to hear again. Oh how he would have loved to see his great-granddaughter riding and taking care of her horse. We miss him so.

A common scene in Kalona....Only there do you find horse poop littering the streets :)