Friday Flashback....little Clifford

This is my first Friday Flashback in a while now.  I was doing pretty good with them for a while and then I kind of got into a funk and didn't want to do them or any blogging for that matter.  So I wanted to make this one special.

Many of you know that my brother Clifford and I are very close.  And while he has been deployed to Afghanistan this year it has been hard for me.  A sibling is someone that you have a bond with that no one else can quite touch.  We've have hard times together and good times together.  But no matter what happens or where we are we are always there for each other.

So when I think about memories of us together as kids this is one of the images that always pops into my head.

I remember this day vividly.  We were down by the main pond on my Papa's land.  We had spent most of the day fishing.  There was an old table down there that we would always climb on and jump off of like we could fly.  It sat under a HUGE tree that gave us the perfect amount of shade. I remember that my Dad and Grandparents were grilling that day and when Clifford went over to get his hot dog he stepped on a hot piece of charcoal that had fallen out of the grill.  I remember hearing him cry and I ran over.  Only I could comfort him and we spent the rest of the day just sitting under that tree while I held some ice on it.

I went out to  my Dad's house about a month ago and from his front porch you can see that pond. The table has been gone for years but I thought that tree would always be there.  There had been some bad storms a couple nights that week and that old tree got blown over.  I was so sad that all I could do was just stare at it in silence.  I walked slowly down to the pond with Chris and Ivy to try and take it in. As I let Ivy climb all over the broken pieces of that tree I thought about all those times that Clifford and I played under it together.  And although my brother hasn't seen it yet I know that he will be sad too.

Happy Friday!